Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when to plant stocks is to check out the USDA zone info for Livermore.

Planting Calendar for Stocks

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

Since stocks do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Livermore. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Livermore is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Livermore you get a frost after February 15 so always be ready to protect your stocks in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Livermore

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 Livermore

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Livermore.