The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant nicotiana is to consult the USDA zone info for Lompoc.

Planting Calendar for Nicotiana

Frost tolerance for nicotiana:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Nicotiana are not cold tolerant which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Lompoc. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lompoc is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Lompoc last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to cover your nicotiana in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lompoc

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 Lompoc

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