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.

You can figure out when it's the best time to plant watercress in Milpitas by reviewing the USDA zone info.

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 are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant watercress in Milpitas 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 fully mature. If you are starting your watercress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Milpitas. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Milpitas is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Milpitas last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your watercress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Milpitas

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 Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°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 Milpitas

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