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

One way of estimating when to plant datura is to examine the USDA zone info for Shafter.

Planting Calendar for Datura

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

You can plant datura slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant datura 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 datura and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your datura may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your datura indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Shafter. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Shafter is not always accurate 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 datura if you have one of those late frosts.

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.