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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Oregon it's a good idea to determine when to plant melons.

Planting Calendar for Melons

Frost tolerance for melons:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Melons do not do well in cold weather which means that you have to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melons in Oregon 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 melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melons may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your melons indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Oregon. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Oregon is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Oregon last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your melons in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oregon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°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 -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Oregon

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