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.

A way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant melons is to look at the USDA zone info for Kingsville.

Planting Calendar for Melons

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

You really shouldn't 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 Kingsville 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 melons and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your melons 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 February 15 in Kingsville. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Kingsville is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Kingsville last frost occurs after February 15 so always be ready to protect your melons if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Kingsville

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 Kingsville

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