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

One way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant spinach is to use the USDA zone info for Sacramento.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

Frost tolerance for spinach:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since spinach do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant spinach in Sacramento is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant spinach and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your spinach may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your spinach indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Sacramento. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sacramento is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Sacramento there is a last frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your spinach if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sacramento

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 Sacramento

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