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 a good idea to plant broccoli is to refer to the USDA zone info for Lake Elsinore.

Planting Calendar for Broccoli

Frost tolerance for broccoli:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Broccoli are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant broccoli in Lake Elsinore 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 broccoli and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your broccoli may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your broccoli indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Lake Elsinore. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake Elsinore is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Lake Elsinore it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your broccoli if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Elsinore

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 Lake Elsinore

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Elsinore.