When to Plant Watermelon in Kalamazoo, MI

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 Kalamazoo you can estimate when it's possible to plant watermelon by reviewing the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

Watermelon are not cold tolerant which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant watermelon
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant watermelon
Probably not a good time to plant watermelon

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Kalamazoo 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. Any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Kalamazoo. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Kalamazoo may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Kalamazoo there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your watermelon in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Kalamazoo

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 Kalamazoo

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