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 estimate when it's the best time to plant endive in Santa Cruz by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Endive

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

Since endive are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant endive in Santa Cruz 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 endive and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your endive may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your endive indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Santa Cruz the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Santa Cruz is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Cruz you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your endive if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Cruz

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 Santa Cruz

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