One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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 possible to plant watercress is to examine the USDA zone info for New London.

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.

You can plant watercress slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant watercress in New London 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 watercress and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your watercress may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your watercress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in New London. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for New London is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in New London last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your watercress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New London

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in New London

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New London.