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.

You can determine when to plant sunflowers in Fruita by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

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

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Fruita is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your sunflowers indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Fruita. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fruita is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Fruita you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your sunflowers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fruita

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Fruita

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