One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your 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.

The USDA zone info for Zone 9b can be reffered to in order to estimate when to plant lettuce.

Planting Calendar for Lettuce

Frost tolerance for lettuce:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Lettuce are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant lettuce in Zone 9b is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Zone 9b. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Zone 9b is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Zone 9b last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to cover your lettuce if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 9b

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 9b

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 9b.