Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By using the USDA zone info for Winchester it's a good idea 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 probably not a good idea to plant watermelon until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon 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 watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Winchester. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Winchester is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Winchester last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your watermelon in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Winchester

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 Winchester

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