One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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 estimating when it's a good idea to plant stocks is to check out the USDA zone info for Orange City.

Planting Calendar for Stocks

Frost tolerance for stocks:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since stocks are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant stocks 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 stocks and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your stocks may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your stocks indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Orange City. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Orange City is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Orange City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your stocks in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Orange City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Orange City

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