Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant melampodium is to refer to the USDA zone info for Fate.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

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

It's a bad idea to plant melampodium until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Fate 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 melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your melampodium indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Fate. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Fate is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Fate last frost occurs after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your melampodium if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fate

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 Fate

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