Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate 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 estimating when it's the best time to plant melampodium is to consult the USDA zone info for Ridgefield Park.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

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

It's a bad idea to plant melampodium until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Ridgefield Park 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. Any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your melampodium indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Ridgefield Park. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ridgefield Park may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Ridgefield Park it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your melampodium if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ridgefield Park

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Ridgefield Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Ridgefield Park.