One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your 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 tagetes is to look at the USDA zone info for National City.

Planting Calendar for Tagetes

Frost tolerance for tagetes:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since tagetes do not do well in cold weather it is important to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in National City. You should expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for National City and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in National City it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to cover your tagetes in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for National City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in National City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for National City.