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 USDA zone info for Sanibel can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's possible to plant perilla.

Planting Calendar for Perilla

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

Perilla require warm weather which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

The last month that you can plant perilla and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your perilla may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your perilla indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on January 31 in Sanibel. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Sanibel and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Sanibel there is a last frost after January 31 be ready to cover your perilla in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sanibel

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Sanibel

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