Watermelon · Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
When to plant watermelons in Lagos
Main outdoor window
not outdoors here
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
no spring frost
In Lagos, on your chosen risk.
First autumn frost
no autumn frost
The far end of the outdoor season.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Lagos
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Watermelons through the year
Against the frost risk in Lagos
Why these dates
Start indoors five weeks before the last frost in pots that will not disturb the roots, and plant out two weeks after it under fleece or black plastic to lift soil temperature.
Killed at 0C, and checked hard by anything below 12C. Frost dates matter less here than the run of warm nights between them.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Watermelons are timed from 5 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Lagos.
Also in Lagos
Other vegetables to time
Growing watermelons in Lagos
How much frost will watermelons tolerate?
Killed at 0C, and checked hard by anything below 12C. Frost dates matter less here than the run of warm nights between them.