One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

It's possible to determine when it's the best time to plant banana by referring to the USDA zone info for Orinda.

Planting Calendar for Banana

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant banana until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant banana in Orinda 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 banana and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your banana may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your banana indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Orinda the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Orinda is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Orinda it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your banana in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Orinda

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 Orinda

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