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.

You should be able to estimate when to plant celery by looking at the USDA zone info for Salinas.

Planting Calendar for Celery

Frost tolerance for celery:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Celery do ok in some cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Salinas. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Salinas is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Salinas there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to cover your celery in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salinas

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 Salinas

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