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.

A common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant melons is to use the USDA zone info for Williston.

Planting Calendar for Melons

Frost tolerance for melons:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Melons are not cold tolerant which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melons in Williston is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your melons indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Williston. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Williston may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Williston you get surprised by a frost after May 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your melons if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Williston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-30°F
Highest Expected Low	-25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -25°F.

Plants to Grow in Williston

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