When to Plant Iceberg lettuce in Hillsdale, NJ

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Hillsdale you should be able to determine when it's the best time to plant iceberg lettuce.


Planting Calendar for Iceberg lettuce

Frost tolerance for iceberg lettuce: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since iceberg lettuce are barely cold tolerant you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant iceberg lettuce
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant iceberg lettuce
Probably not a good time to plant iceberg lettuce

The earliest that you can plant iceberg lettuce in Hillsdale 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 iceberg lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your iceberg lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your iceberg lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Hillsdale. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hillsdale may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Hillsdale it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your iceberg lettuce in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hillsdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low0°F
Highest Expected Low5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Hillsdale

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