🥬 When to Plant Lettuce
Cool-season crop; bolts in heat
📅 Planting Calendar by USDA Zone
Lettuce is a cool-season crop — plant it around your last spring frost, and you can often start it earlier indoors or sow again for a fall harvest. Find the exact start-indoors, transplant, and direct-sow dates for your USDA zone in the table below.
Select your zone to highlight your dates. All dates are calculated from each zone's average frost dates — see how we calculate them.
| Zone | Last Frost | Start Indoors | Transplant | Direct Sow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 2A | May 30 | Apr 18 | May 2 | May 2 |
| Zone 3B | May 15 | Apr 3 | Apr 17 | Apr 17 |
| Zone 4A | May 8 | Mar 27 | Apr 10 | Apr 10 |
| Zone 4B | May 1 | Mar 20 | Apr 3 | Apr 3 |
| Zone 5A | Apr 25 | Mar 14 | Mar 28 | Mar 28 |
| Zone 5B | Apr 18 | Mar 7 | Mar 21 | Mar 21 |
| Zone 6A | Apr 21 | Mar 10 | Mar 24 | Mar 24 |
| Zone 6B | Apr 10 | Feb 27 | Mar 13 | Mar 13 |
| Zone 7A | Apr 5 | Feb 22 | Mar 8 | Mar 8 |
| Zone 7B | Mar 28 | Feb 14 | Feb 28 | Feb 28 |
| Zone 8A | Mar 20 | Feb 6 | Feb 20 | Feb 20 |
| Zone 8B | Mar 12 | Jan 29 | Feb 12 | Feb 12 |
| Zone 9A | Feb 28 | Jan 17 | Jan 31 | Jan 31 |
| Zone 9B | Feb 15 | Jan 4 | Jan 18 | Jan 18 |
| Zone 10A | Feb 1 | Dec 21 | Jan 4 | Jan 4 |
| Zone 10B | Jan 15 | Dec 4 | Dec 18 | Dec 18 |
| Zone 11A | Jan 1 | Nov 20 | Dec 4 | Dec 4 |
Lettuce is a fast-growing cool-season crop perfect for spring and fall gardens.
Top Growing Tips
- Succession plant every 2 weeks for continuous harvest
- Bolts quickly in hot weather — plant in partial shade in summer
- Cut-and-come-again: harvest outer leaves for extended production
- Can start very early under row covers
- Grows well in containers and between larger plants
Companion Planting
Good companions: carrots, radishes, strawberries, chives
Avoid planting near: none in particular
Harvest Timeline
30-60 days from seed
Growing lettuce in your region?
These dates come from your zone's frost windows. For the full month-by-month plan — succession sowing, variety picks, and timing tuned to your climate, not just your zone — our regional vegetable-gardening guides cover your area start to finish.
Find your regional growing guide