One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

In Opelousas you can figure out when you can plant nicotiana by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Nicotiana

Frost tolerance for nicotiana:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant nicotiana until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant nicotiana in Opelousas is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant nicotiana and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your nicotiana may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your nicotiana indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Opelousas. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Opelousas is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Opelousas last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your nicotiana in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Opelousas

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Opelousas

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