One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Artesia you should be able to determine when you can plant melons.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

It's a bad idea to 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 Artesia is February. However, you really should wait until March 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. If you wait any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your melons indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Artesia. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 35°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Artesia may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Artesia it frosts late in the year after January 31 so be sure to be ready to protect your melons if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Artesia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in Artesia

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