One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. 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 melons in Turlock can be estimated by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melons

Frost tolerance for melons:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably not a good idea to plant melons until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Turlock. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Turlock is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Turlock you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your melons in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Turlock

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 Turlock

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