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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant corn is to look at the USDA zone info for El Centro.

Planting Calendar for Corn

Frost tolerance for corn:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Corn require warm weather which means that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in El Centro. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for El Centro and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in El Centro you get surprised by a frost after January 31 be ready to protect your corn in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for El Centro

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in El Centro

You may be interested in your other planting guides for El Centro.