One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant datura is to examine the USDA zone info for Salem.

Planting Calendar for Datura

Frost tolerance for datura:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant datura just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant datura in Salem 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 datura and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your datura may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your datura indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Salem. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Salem is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Salem there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your datura if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Salem

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