When to Plant Spinach in Waterloo, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. 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 Waterloo you should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant spinach.


Planting Calendar for Spinach

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

You can plant spinach a little bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

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

The earliest that you can plant spinach in Waterloo 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 spinach and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your spinach may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your spinach indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Waterloo. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Waterloo and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Waterloo last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your spinach in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Waterloo

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Waterloo

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