One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

The USDA zone info for Dekalb can be looked at to figure out when to plant watermelon.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

Since watermelon require warm weather you have to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Dekalb 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 watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your watermelon indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Dekalb. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dekalb is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Dekalb it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your watermelon if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dekalb

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 Dekalb

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