One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

In Orinda you can estimate when you can plant perilla by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Perilla

Frost tolerance for perilla:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Since perilla are not cold tolerant you have to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Orinda. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Orinda is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Orinda there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to protect your perilla in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.