One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 determining when it's a good idea to plant spinach is to examine the USDA zone info for Odessa.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

Frost tolerance for spinach:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Spinach do well in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

The last month that you can plant spinach and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your spinach may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your spinach 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 March 15 in Odessa. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Odessa is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Odessa you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your spinach in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Odessa

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 Odessa

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