Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden 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 stocks is to look at the USDA zone info for Merced.

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.

Stocks are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant stocks in Merced 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

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Merced. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Merced may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Merced last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your stocks if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Merced

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Merced

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