One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 best time to plant melons in Umatilla should be determined by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

It's probably not a good idea to plant melons until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant melons in Umatilla 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 melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your melons indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Umatilla. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Umatilla is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Umatilla you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your melons if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Umatilla

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 Umatilla

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