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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Shafter it's a good idea to determine when to plant calibrachoa.

Planting Calendar for Calibrachoa

Frost tolerance for calibrachoa:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Calibrachoa are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant calibrachoa in Shafter is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant calibrachoa and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your calibrachoa may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your calibrachoa indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Shafter. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Shafter is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Shafter it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your calibrachoa if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shafter

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Shafter

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Shafter.