One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The earliest that you can plant platycodon in Shafter should be determined by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Platycodon

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

Platycodon are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on 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 may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Shafter it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your platycodon in the event of 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.