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

The best time to plant melampodium in San Diego should be estimated by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant melampodium until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in San Diego 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 melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your melampodium may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your melampodium indoors.

Last Frost Date

In San Diego the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for San Diego is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in San Diego you get a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your melampodium if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Diego

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 San Diego

You may be interested in your other planting guides for San Diego.