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

The first opportunity to plant melampodium in Stockton should be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Since melampodium require warm weather you really should wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Stockton. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Stockton 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 Stockton you get a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your melampodium in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Stockton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Stockton

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