One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when you can plant basil is to use the USDA zone info for Cerritos.

Planting Calendar for Basil

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

Since basil do not do well in cold weather it's necessary to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on January 31 in Cerritos. It might get as low as 35°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cerritos is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Cerritos you get surprised by a frost after January 31 be ready to protect your basil if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cerritos

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in Cerritos

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