One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant watermelon is to use the USDA zone info for Excelsior Springs.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

Frost tolerance for watermelon:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since watermelon are not cold tolerant it is important to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Excelsior Springs 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else 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

In Excelsior Springs the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Excelsior Springs is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Excelsior Springs there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your watermelon if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Excelsior Springs

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 Excelsior Springs

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Excelsior Springs.