Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant tagetes is to check out the USDA zone info for Shafter.

Planting Calendar for Tagetes

Frost tolerance for tagetes:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Since tagetes are not cold tolerant you have to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Shafter. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Shafter is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Shafter you get surprised by a frost after February 15 be ready to cover your tagetes if you have 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.