When to Plant Corn in Salinas, CA

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

You can figure out when it's possible to plant corn in Salinas by using the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Corn

Frost tolerance for corn: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably not a good idea to plant corn until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant corn
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant corn
Probably not a good time to plant corn

The earliest that you can plant corn in Salinas 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 corn and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your corn may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your corn indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Salinas and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Salinas last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your corn if you have 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 Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°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.