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.

You can determine when it's possible to plant pumpkins in Bakersfield by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

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

You can not plant pumpkins until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Bakersfield 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. If you are starting your pumpkins indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Bakersfield the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bakersfield is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Bakersfield you get a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your pumpkins in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bakersfield

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 Bakersfield

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