When to Plant Watermelon in Astoria, OR

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.

The first chance to plant watermelon in Astoria should be determined by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Watermelon

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

Watermelon require warm weather which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant watermelon
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant watermelon
Probably not a good time to plant watermelon

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Astoria 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. If you wait any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Astoria. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Astoria is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Astoria it frosts late in the year after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your watermelon if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Astoria

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)November 15
Lowest Expected Low15°F
Highest Expected Low20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Astoria

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