One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of determining when to plant melons is to examine the USDA zone info for North Port.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

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

The earliest that you can plant melons in North Port 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melons may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your melons indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in North Port. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for North Port is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in North Port you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your melons if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for North Port

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 North Port

You may be interested in your other planting guides for North Port.