One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 first chance to plant melons in Orange City should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant melons until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant melons in Orange City 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. If you wait any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your melons indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Orange City. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Orange City is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Orange City last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your melons if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Orange City

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 Orange City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Orange City.