The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when it's a good idea to plant watermelon in Ruidoso by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

Since watermelon require warm weather you must wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Ruidoso 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 watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Ruidoso. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Ruidoso is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Ruidoso it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your watermelon in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ruidoso

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

Plants to Grow in Ruidoso

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