One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant cantaloupes is to refer to the USDA zone info for Chillicothe.

Planting Calendar for Cantaloupes

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

You can not plant cantaloupes until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cantaloupes in Chillicothe 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 cantaloupes and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cantaloupes may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cantaloupes indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Chillicothe. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Chillicothe is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Chillicothe last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your cantaloupes if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Chillicothe

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Chillicothe

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