When to Plant Romaine lettuce in Washington, NJ

One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

You can estimate when it's possible to plant romaine lettuce in Washington by reviewing the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

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

Romaine lettuce do ok in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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 Washington 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. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your romaine lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Washington. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Washington is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Washington you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your romaine lettuce if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Washington

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 Low0°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 Washington

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