When to Plant Nicotiana in Costa Mesa, CA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Costa Mesa it's possible to estimate when you can plant nicotiana.


Planting Calendar for Nicotiana

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

Since nicotiana are not cold tolerant it's necessary to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant nicotiana
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant nicotiana
Probably not a good time to plant nicotiana

The earliest that you can plant nicotiana in Costa Mesa 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 nicotiana and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your nicotiana may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your nicotiana indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on January 31 in Costa Mesa. You can expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Costa Mesa and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Costa Mesa last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to protect your nicotiana in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Costa Mesa

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 Low35°F
Highest Expected Low40°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 Costa Mesa

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Costa Mesa.