One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your 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 determining when you can plant melampodium is to examine the USDA zone info for West Long Branch.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

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

Melampodium do not do well in cold weather which means that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in West Long Branch 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. If you wait any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your melampodium indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in West Long Branch. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for West Long Branch may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in West Long Branch you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your melampodium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Long Branch

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 West Long Branch

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Long Branch.