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

You can figure out when it's the best time to plant melampodium in Odessa by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

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

Since melampodium are not cold tolerant you must wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Odessa 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 melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melampodium may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your melampodium indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Odessa. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Odessa is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Odessa it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your melampodium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Odessa

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 Odessa

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