When to Plant Romaine lettuce in Metuchen, NJ

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant romaine lettuce is to examine the USDA zone info for Metuchen.


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 do well in cold you can plant them much earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Metuchen 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. If you wait any later than that and your romaine lettuce may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your romaine lettuce indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Metuchen. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Metuchen is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Metuchen you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your romaine lettuce in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Metuchen

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 Metuchen

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