When to Plant Cilantro in Harrisonburg, VA

One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 Harrisonburg should be used to determine when it's possible to plant cilantro.


Planting Calendar for Cilantro

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

Cilantro do well in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant cilantro
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant cilantro
Probably not a good time to plant cilantro

The earliest that you can plant cilantro in Harrisonburg 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 cilantro and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cilantro may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your cilantro indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Harrisonburg the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Harrisonburg may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Harrisonburg you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your cilantro if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Harrisonburg

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 Low0°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 Harrisonburg

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