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 estimating when to plant watermelon is to examine the USDA zone info for Coachella.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

Frost tolerance for watermelon:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since watermelon require warm weather you really should wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Coachella 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 watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Coachella may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Coachella you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your watermelon if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Coachella

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 Coachella

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