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.

The USDA zone info for Charleston should be used to determine when you can plant iceberg lettuce.

Planting Calendar for Iceberg lettuce

Frost tolerance for iceberg lettuce:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant iceberg lettuce a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant iceberg lettuce in Charleston 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 iceberg lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your iceberg lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your iceberg lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Charleston. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Charleston is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Charleston you get a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your iceberg lettuce if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Charleston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Charleston

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