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.

In Orange you can determine when it's the best time to plant chicory by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chicory

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

Chicory are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

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

The last month that you can plant chicory and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your chicory may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chicory indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Orange. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Orange is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Orange last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your chicory in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Orange

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 Orange

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