One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

In Ceres you can determine when you can plant melons by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

Melons require warm weather which means that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Ceres and it is different every year. Half of the time in Ceres there is a last frost after February 15 so always be ready to protect your melons in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ceres

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 Ceres

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