When to Plant Melons in Midlothian, IL

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 first opportunity to plant melons in Midlothian can be determined by reviewing the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Melons

Frost tolerance for melons: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

It's not a good idea to plant melons until after the last 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 Midlothian 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. If you wait any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your melons indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Midlothian 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.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Midlothian is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Midlothian last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your melons if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Midlothian

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 Midlothian

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