When to Plant Millet in San Francisco, CA

One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your 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.

The USDA zone info for San Francisco can be reviewed to determine when it's a good idea to plant millet.


Planting Calendar for Millet

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant millet until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in San Francisco. You should expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for San Francisco and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in San Francisco it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your millet if you have one of those late frosts.

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.