The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. 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 Elgin can be looked at to figure out when it's a good idea to plant sweet corn.

Planting Calendar for Sweet corn

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

You can plant sweet corn slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant sweet corn in Elgin is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sweet corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sweet corn may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sweet corn indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Elgin. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Elgin and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Elgin last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your sweet corn in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elgin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Elgin

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