One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 Alameda should be reffered to in order to estimate when to plant red hot pokers.

Planting Calendar for Red Hot Pokers

Frost tolerance for red hot pokers:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Red Hot Pokers tend to make it in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant red hot pokers in Alameda 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 red hot pokers and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your red hot pokers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your red hot pokers indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Alameda the average date of last frost happens on January 31. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Alameda is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Alameda it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to protect your red hot pokers in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Alameda

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Alameda

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