When to Plant Lettuce in Seattle, WA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Seattle you can figure out when you can plant lettuce by looking at the USDA zone info.


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.

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

The earliest that you can plant lettuce in Seattle 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 really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Seattle. You should expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Seattle is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Seattle you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your lettuce if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Seattle

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 Low15°F
Highest Expected Low20°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 Seattle

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