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

You can determine when you can plant salvia in El Centro by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Salvia

Frost tolerance for salvia:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Salvia are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant salvia 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 salvia and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your salvia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your salvia indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for El Centro may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost 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 salvia if you have one of those late frosts.

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.