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.

The first chance to plant melampodium in Slinger should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Melampodium

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

Since melampodium require warm weather it's important to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant melampodium in Slinger 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 melampodium and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your melampodium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your melampodium indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Slinger. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Slinger is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Slinger you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your melampodium in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Slinger

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 Slinger

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