One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The first opportunity to plant lettuce in Elk River can be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Lettuce

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

Lettuce are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant lettuce in Elk River is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Elk River. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Elk River is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Elk River there is a last frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your lettuce if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elk River

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Elk River

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Elk River.