When to Plant Romaine lettuce in Rantoul, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Rantoul you can determine when it's possible to plant romaine lettuce by checking out the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

Frost tolerance for romaine lettuce: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Romaine lettuce are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant romaine lettuce
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant romaine lettuce
Probably not a good time to plant romaine lettuce

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Rantoul is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant romaine lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your romaine lettuce may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your romaine lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Rantoul. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Rantoul and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Rantoul you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your romaine lettuce in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rantoul

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Rantoul

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rantoul.