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 way of determining when it's possible to plant melons is to look at the USDA zone info for Indian Wells.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

You really shouldn't plant melons until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Indian Wells. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Indian Wells may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Indian Wells you get a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your melons if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Indian Wells

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 Indian Wells

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Indian Wells.