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.

You should be able to determine when it's a good idea to plant banana by looking at the USDA zone info for Santa Ana.

Planting Calendar for Banana

Frost tolerance for banana:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's not a good idea to plant banana until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant banana in Santa Ana 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 banana and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your banana may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your banana indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on January 31 in Santa Ana. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Ana is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Ana you get surprised by a frost after January 31 be ready to cover your banana if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Ana

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 Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°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 Santa Ana

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Ana.