One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A way of figuring out when it's possible to plant cigar plant is to look at the USDA zone info for Rockford.

Planting Calendar for Cigar Plant

Frost tolerance for cigar plant:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You can not plant cigar plant until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cigar plant in Rockford 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 cigar plant and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your cigar plant may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your cigar plant indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Rockford. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Rockford is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Rockford there is a last frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your cigar plant if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rockford

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 Rockford

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