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.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant melampodium is to refer to the USDA zone info for Michigan City.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

Frost tolerance for melampodium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably not a good idea to plant melampodium until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Michigan City 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 melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your melampodium indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Michigan City the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Michigan City is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Michigan City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your melampodium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Michigan City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Michigan City

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