One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant romaine lettuce is to examine the USDA zone info for Newport.

Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

Frost tolerance for romaine lettuce:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since romaine lettuce are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Newport 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 romaine lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your romaine lettuce may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your romaine lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Newport. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Newport is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Newport it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your romaine lettuce in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Newport

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 Low	0°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 Newport

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