One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant watermelon is to check out the USDA zone info for Starkville.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

Since watermelon require warm weather you need to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Starkville 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. If you wait any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Starkville. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Starkville is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Starkville last frost occurs after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your watermelon if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Starkville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Starkville

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