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

A common way of estimating when you can plant cantaloupes is to use the USDA zone info for Moses Lake.

Planting Calendar for Cantaloupes

Frost tolerance for cantaloupes:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Since cantaloupes are not cold tolerant it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cantaloupes in Moses Lake is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cantaloupes and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cantaloupes may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cantaloupes indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Moses Lake. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Moses Lake is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Moses Lake last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your cantaloupes if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Moses Lake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Moses Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Moses Lake.