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.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's the best time to plant garden cress is to refer to the USDA zone info for Los Banos.

Planting Calendar for Garden cress

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

Garden cress do not do well in cold weather which tells us that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Los Banos is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your garden cress indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Los Banos the average date of last frost happens on February 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Los Banos is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Los Banos you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so always be ready to cover your garden cress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Los Banos

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°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 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Los Banos

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Los Banos.