Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The best time to plant gherkins in Oak Ridge can be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gherkins

Frost tolerance for gherkins:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's a bad idea to plant gherkins until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant gherkins in Oak Ridge 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. If you wait any later than that and your gherkins may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your gherkins indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Oak Ridge. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oak Ridge is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Oak Ridge you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your gherkins in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Ridge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

Plants to Grow in Oak Ridge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Ridge.