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.

It's possible to figure out when you can plant pumpkins by reviewing the USDA zone info for Lake City.

Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

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

It's a bad idea to plant pumpkins until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Lake City 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 pumpkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pumpkins may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your pumpkins indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Lake City. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake City is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Lake City you get a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your pumpkins in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lake City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Lake City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake City.