One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The USDA zone info for Rifle should be looked at to figure out when it's the best time to plant zucchini.

Planting Calendar for Zucchini

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

Since zucchini do not do well in cold weather you need to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant zucchini in Rifle 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 zucchini and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your zucchini may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your zucchini indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Rifle the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Rifle is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rifle it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your zucchini if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rifle

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Rifle

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