One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for El Centro should be read to determine when it's the best time to plant spearmint.

Planting Calendar for Spearmint

Frost tolerance for spearmint:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Spearmint do well in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them much earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant spearmint in El Centro is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant spearmint and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your spearmint may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your spearmint indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for El Centro is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in El Centro last frost occurs after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to protect your spearmint 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.