One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

One way of estimating when you can plant romaine lettuce is to check out the USDA zone info for Dayton.

Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

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

Romaine lettuce are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Dayton 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your romaine lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Dayton the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Dayton is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Dayton last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your romaine lettuce in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dayton

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 Dayton

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