The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to estimate when it's the best time to plant watermelon by looking at the USDA zone info for Wilmington.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

It's a bad idea to plant watermelon until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Wilmington 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

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Wilmington. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Wilmington may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Wilmington it frosts late in the year after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your watermelon in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Wilmington

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 Wilmington

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