One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

A common way of estimating when it's the best time to plant millet is to use the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz.

Planting Calendar for Millet

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

Millet require warm weather which tells us that it is important to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant millet in Santa Cruz is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant millet and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your millet may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your millet indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Santa Cruz the average date of last frost happens on February 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Santa Cruz may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Cruz it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your millet in the event of 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.