When to Plant Mustard in San Mateo, CA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant mustard is to use the USDA zone info for San Mateo.


Planting Calendar for Mustard

Frost tolerance for mustard: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

Mustard do not do well in cold weather which tells us that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant mustard in San Mateo 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 mustard and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your mustard may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your mustard indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in San Mateo. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Mateo is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in San Mateo there is a last frost after January 31 be ready to protect your mustard in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Mateo

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 Mateo

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