One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's possible to plant romaine lettuce is to look at the USDA zone info for Sussex.

Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

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

Since romaine lettuce are very cold tolerant you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Sussex 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. If you wait any later than that and your romaine lettuce may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your romaine lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Sussex. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Sussex is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Sussex it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your romaine lettuce if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sussex

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 Sussex

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