When to Plant Melons in Canton, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 Canton can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea to plant melons.

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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 do not do well in cold weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant melons
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant melons
Probably not a good time to plant melons

The earliest that you can plant melons in Canton is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. 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

In Canton the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Canton may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Canton it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your melons if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Canton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Canton

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