When to Plant Zucchini in Santa Cruz, CA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to figure out when you can plant zucchini by looking at the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz.


Planting Calendar for Zucchini

Frost tolerance for zucchini: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

Since zucchini are not cold tolerant it's important to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant zucchini
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant zucchini
Probably not a good time to plant zucchini

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Cruz last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your zucchini 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 Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°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.