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

A common way of determining when it's possible to plant melons is to refer to the USDA zone info for North Platte.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

You should not plant melons until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant melons in North Platte 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 melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your melons indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in North Platte. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for North Platte is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in North Platte you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your melons in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for North Platte

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in North Platte

You may be interested in your other planting guides for North Platte.