When to Plant Pumpkins in Jacksonville, TX

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 USDA zone info for Jacksonville should be looked at to figure out when it's possible to plant pumpkins.


Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

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

Pumpkins are not cold tolerant which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Jacksonville 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. Any later than that and your pumpkins may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pumpkins indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Jacksonville the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Jacksonville is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Jacksonville you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your pumpkins if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Jacksonville

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 Jacksonville

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