One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 USDA zone info for Dayton should be used to figure out when it's the best time to plant watermelon.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

Frost tolerance for watermelon:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Watermelon require warm weather which means that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

The last month that you can plant watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your watermelon indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Dayton. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Dayton and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Dayton last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your watermelon in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dayton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Dayton

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