One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

You should be able to figure out when you can plant parsnip by looking at the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz.

Planting Calendar for Parsnip

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

Parsnip do well in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant parsnip 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 parsnip and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your parsnip may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your parsnip indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Santa Cruz. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Santa Cruz is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Cruz you get a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your parsnip if you have a 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.