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.

The USDA zone info for Palo Alto can be used to determine when it's possible to plant flowering tobacco.

Planting Calendar for Flowering Tobacco

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

Since flowering tobacco require warm weather you really should wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant flowering tobacco in Palo Alto 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 flowering tobacco and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your flowering tobacco may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your flowering tobacco indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Palo Alto the average date of last frost happens on February 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Palo Alto is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Palo Alto you get surprised by a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your flowering tobacco in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Palo Alto

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 Palo Alto

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Palo Alto.