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.

It's possible to determine when it's the best time to plant pumpkins by looking at the USDA zone info for Oakdale.

Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

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

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

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Oakdale 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 pumpkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pumpkins may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pumpkins indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Oakdale the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oakdale is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Oakdale you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your pumpkins if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oakdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Oakdale

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