One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 West Chester should be used to estimate when you can plant lettuce.

Planting Calendar for Lettuce

Frost tolerance for lettuce:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Lettuce do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant lettuce in West Chester 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 lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your lettuce may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your lettuce indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in West Chester. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for West Chester is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in West Chester you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your lettuce if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Chester

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 Low	0°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 West Chester

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Chester.