One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 best time to plant pumpkins in Arroyo Grande should be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

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

Since pumpkins do not do well in cold weather it's necessary to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Arroyo Grande 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 pumpkins and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your pumpkins may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pumpkins indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Arroyo Grande. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Arroyo Grande is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Arroyo Grande you get a frost after February 15 be ready to cover your pumpkins if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Arroyo Grande

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 Arroyo Grande

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Arroyo Grande.