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 best time to plant beets in Melbourne can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Beets

Frost tolerance for beets:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since beets are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant beets in Melbourne is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant beets and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your beets may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your beets 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 February 15 in Melbourne. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Melbourne is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Melbourne last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your beets if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Melbourne

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 Melbourne

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