One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 Portage should be reviewed to determine when it's possible to 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 just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant iceberg lettuce in Portage 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 iceberg lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably August. 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. Starting your iceberg lettuce indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Portage. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Portage may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Portage there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your iceberg lettuce in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portage

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°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 -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Portage

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