When to Plant Lupine in San Carlos, CA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant lupine is to look at the USDA zone info for San Carlos.


Planting Calendar for Lupine

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

Since lupine are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant lupine in San Carlos 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 lupine and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your lupine may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your lupine indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in San Carlos. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for San Carlos is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in San Carlos it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your lupine in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Carlos

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low30°F
Highest Expected Low35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in San Carlos

You may be interested in your other planting guides for San Carlos.