Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Carlsbad should be used to determine when it's the best time to plant melampodium.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably not a good idea to plant melampodium until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Carlsbad 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 melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melampodium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your melampodium indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Carlsbad. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Carlsbad is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Carlsbad you get a frost after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to protect your melampodium in the event of 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.