One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The USDA zone info for Rochester should be reviewed to determine when it's possible to plant romaine lettuce.

Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

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

You can plant romaine lettuce quite a bit earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Rochester 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 really do well. Starting your romaine lettuce indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Rochester the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rochester is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rochester it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to protect your romaine lettuce if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Rochester

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