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

By using the USDA zone info for Desert Hot Springs it's a good idea to figure out when it's the best time to plant nicotiana.

Planting Calendar for Nicotiana

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

It's a bad idea to plant nicotiana until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant nicotiana in Desert Hot Springs 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 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your nicotiana indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Desert Hot Springs. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Desert Hot Springs is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Desert Hot Springs you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your nicotiana in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Desert Hot Springs

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 Desert Hot Springs

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Desert Hot Springs.