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.

In Elk Grove you can figure out when to plant watermelon by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

Frost tolerance for watermelon:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Watermelon are not cold tolerant which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Elk Grove 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 watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Elk Grove the average date of last frost happens on February 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Elk Grove is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Elk Grove it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your watermelon in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Elk Grove

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 Elk Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Elk Grove.