Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant rhubarb in Sterling should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Rhubarb

Frost tolerance for rhubarb:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Rhubarb are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant rhubarb in Sterling 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 rhubarb and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your rhubarb may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your rhubarb indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Sterling. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sterling is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Sterling last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your rhubarb if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sterling

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 Sterling

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