When to Plant Garden cress in Watsonville, CA

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

By checking out the USDA zone info for Watsonville it's a good idea to estimate when it's a good idea to plant garden cress.


Planting Calendar for Garden cress

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

Since garden cress require warm weather it's necessary to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Watsonville 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. Any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Watsonville the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Watsonville and it is different every year. Half of the time in Watsonville there is a last frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your garden cress in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Watsonville

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 Watsonville

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