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.

One way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant asters is to check out the USDA zone info for Carlsbad.

Planting Calendar for Asters

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

You can plant asters a little bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant asters in Carlsbad 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your asters may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your asters indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Carlsbad the average date of last frost happens on January 31. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Carlsbad is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Carlsbad there is a last frost after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your asters if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carlsbad

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 Carlsbad

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