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.

You can determine when it's possible to plant candytuft in Santa Barbara by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Candytuft

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

Candytuft are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant candytuft in Santa Barbara 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 candytuft and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your candytuft may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your candytuft indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Santa Barbara. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

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

USDA Zone Info for Santa Barbara

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 Barbara

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