Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when to plant gherkins is to refer to the USDA zone info for Dayton.

Planting Calendar for Gherkins

Frost tolerance for gherkins:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since gherkins do not do well in cold weather you really should wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant gherkins in Dayton is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant gherkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your gherkins may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your gherkins indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Dayton. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dayton is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Dayton you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your gherkins in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dayton

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 Dayton

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