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 Manteno should be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea to plant watermelon.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

It's not a good idea to plant watermelon until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Manteno 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your watermelon may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Manteno is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Manteno you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your watermelon in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Manteno

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 Manteno

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