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 figuring out when it's a good idea to plant watermelon is to examine the USDA zone info for Sarasota.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

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

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Sarasota 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. If you wait 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

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

Since the USDA zone info for Sarasota is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Sarasota it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your watermelon in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sarasota

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 Sarasota

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