One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

You will be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant melons by looking at the USDA zone info for Centralia.

Planting Calendar for Melons

Frost tolerance for melons:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

You can not plant melons until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant melons in Centralia 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 melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your melons indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Centralia. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Centralia may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Centralia you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your melons in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Centralia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°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 -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Centralia

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