One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Bloomington can be reffered to in order to estimate when it's a good idea to plant gherkins.

Planting Calendar for Gherkins

Frost tolerance for gherkins:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's not a good idea to plant gherkins until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Bloomington. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bloomington is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Bloomington there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your gherkins if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bloomington

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Bloomington

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