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 Winchester can be used to estimate when you can plant squash.

Planting Calendar for Squash

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

Squash require warm weather which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant squash in Winchester 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 squash and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your squash may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your squash indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Winchester. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Winchester is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Winchester it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your squash in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Winchester

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 Winchester

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