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.

In Calistoga you can determine when it's possible to plant chard by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Chard tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Calistoga 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your chard indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Calistoga. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Calistoga is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Calistoga last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your chard if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Calistoga

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Calistoga

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