One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 way of estimating when you can plant melons is to use the USDA zone info for Antioch.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

Since melons do not do well in cold weather you have to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

The last month that you can plant melons and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your melons indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Antioch. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Antioch is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Antioch last frost occurs after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your melons if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Antioch

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Antioch

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