One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

In Rio Rancho you can estimate when it's possible to plant nicotiana by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Nicotiana

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

It's a bad idea to plant nicotiana until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant nicotiana in Rio Rancho 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 nicotiana and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your nicotiana may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your nicotiana indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Rio Rancho the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rio Rancho is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rio Rancho it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your nicotiana if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rio Rancho

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Rio Rancho

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rio Rancho.