When to Plant Purple Rock Cress in Watsonville, CA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate 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 a good idea to plant purple rock cress in Watsonville by referring to the USDA zone info.


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.

Since purple rock cress are very cold tolerant you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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 Watsonville 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. Any later than that and your purple rock cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your purple rock cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Watsonville. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Watsonville and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Watsonville it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your purple rock cress if you have 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.