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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Shafter you should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant salsify.

Planting Calendar for Salsify

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

Since salsify are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant salsify 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 salsify and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your salsify may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your salsify indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Shafter. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

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 there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to protect your salsify in the event of a 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.