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.

One way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant fennel is to refer to the USDA zone info for Socorro.

Planting Calendar for Fennel

Frost tolerance for fennel:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since fennel are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant fennel in Socorro is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant fennel and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your fennel may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your fennel indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Socorro. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Socorro is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Socorro there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your fennel if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Socorro

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 Socorro

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