When to Plant Watercress in Lincoln, CA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant watercress is to refer to the USDA zone info for Lincoln.


Planting Calendar for Watercress

Frost tolerance for watercress: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Watercress can survive in very little cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant watercress
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant watercress
Probably not a good time to plant watercress

The earliest that you can plant watercress in Lincoln is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant watercress and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your watercress may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your watercress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Lincoln. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Lincoln is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Lincoln you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so always be ready to cover your watercress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lincoln

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Lincoln

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