One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Calera can be read to determine when it's possible to plant watermelon.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

Frost tolerance for watermelon:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant watermelon until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Calera 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 watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your watermelon indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Calera the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Calera is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Calera last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your watermelon in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Calera

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 Calera

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