One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when to plant romaine lettuce is to check out the USDA zone info for Rio Rancho.

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 are very cold tolerant you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Rio Rancho 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your romaine lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your romaine lettuce indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Rio Rancho the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rio Rancho is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rio Rancho last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your romaine lettuce if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rio Rancho

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 Rio Rancho

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rio Rancho.