One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant cantaloupes is to examine the USDA zone info for Augusta.

Planting Calendar for Cantaloupes

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

You can not plant cantaloupes until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cantaloupes in Augusta 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 cantaloupes and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cantaloupes may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your cantaloupes indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Augusta. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Augusta is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Augusta last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your cantaloupes in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Augusta

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Augusta

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