When to Plant Purple Rock Cress in La Mesa, CA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of getting a good idea when you can plant purple rock cress is to refer to the USDA zone info for La Mesa.


Planting Calendar for Purple Rock Cress

Frost tolerance for purple rock cress: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant purple rock cress quite a bit earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant purple rock cress
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant purple rock cress
Probably not a good time to plant purple rock cress

The earliest that you can plant purple rock cress in La Mesa is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant purple rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple rock cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your purple rock cress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in La Mesa. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for La Mesa is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in La Mesa last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to cover your purple rock cress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for La Mesa

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low30°F
Highest Expected Low35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in La Mesa

You may be interested in your other planting guides for La Mesa.