One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant sunflowers in San Diego can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since sunflowers do not do well in cold weather it's important to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your sunflowers indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in San Diego. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for San Diego is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in San Diego it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your sunflowers in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.