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.

A way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant carrots is to refer to the USDA zone info for San Jose.

Planting Calendar for Carrots

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

Since carrots are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant carrots in San Jose 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 carrots and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your carrots may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your carrots indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in San Jose. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Jose is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in San Jose last frost occurs after February 15 so always be ready to cover your carrots if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Jose

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 San Jose

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