One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 earliest that you can plant asters in Berkeley can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Asters

Frost tolerance for asters:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since asters are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant asters in Berkeley 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 asters and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your asters may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your asters indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Berkeley. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Berkeley is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Berkeley it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to cover your asters if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Berkeley

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 Berkeley

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