One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 USDA zone info for Bartow should be reviewed to determine when to plant watermelon.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

Watermelon require warm weather which means that it's important to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Bartow 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 watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your watermelon indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Bartow. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bartow is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Bartow there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to protect your watermelon if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bartow

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 Bartow

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