One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

In Elwood you can determine when it's possible to plant rhubarb by using 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 one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rhubarb in Elwood 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 fully mature. Starting your rhubarb indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Elwood. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Elwood is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Elwood you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your rhubarb if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Elwood

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 Elwood

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