One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant cantaloupes is to examine the USDA zone info for Riverdale.

Planting Calendar for Cantaloupes

Frost tolerance for cantaloupes:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably not a good idea to plant cantaloupes until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant cantaloupes in Riverdale is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cantaloupes and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your cantaloupes may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your cantaloupes indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Riverdale. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Riverdale is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Riverdale it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to protect your cantaloupes if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Riverdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Riverdale

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