One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Rock Island it's possible to determine when it's possible to plant squash.

Planting Calendar for Squash

Frost tolerance for squash:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably a bad idea to plant squash until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant squash in Rock Island is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant squash and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your squash may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your squash indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Rock Island is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rock Island you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your squash if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rock Island

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 Rock Island

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rock Island.