When to Plant Melons in San Marcos, CA

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your 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 determine when it's the best time to plant melons in San Marcos by checking out the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Melons

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

You can not plant melons until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

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

The earliest that you can plant melons in San Marcos 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 melons and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your melons indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In San Marcos the average date of last frost happens on January 31. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Marcos is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in San Marcos it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to protect your melons in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Marcos

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 Marcos

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