When to Plant Broccoli in San Francisco, CA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's possible to figure out when you can plant broccoli by referring to the USDA zone info for San Francisco.


Planting Calendar for Broccoli

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

Broccoli do well in mild cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant broccoli in San Francisco 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 broccoli and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your broccoli may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your broccoli indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in San Francisco. You can expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for San Francisco is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in San Francisco it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to cover your broccoli if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Francisco

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low35°F
Highest Expected Low40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in San Francisco

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