One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The USDA zone info for Beckley can be reffered to in order to figure out when to plant watermelon.

Planting Calendar for Watermelon

Frost tolerance for watermelon:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Watermelon require warm weather which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant watermelon in Beckley 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 watermelon and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your watermelon may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your watermelon indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Beckley the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Beckley and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Beckley it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your watermelon if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Beckley

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Beckley

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