When to Plant Purple Rock Cress in Decorah, IA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening 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 Decorah it's possible to figure out when it's a good idea to plant purple rock cress.


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.

Purple Rock Cress do well in cold which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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 Decorah 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 purple rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your purple rock cress may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your purple rock cress indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Decorah. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Decorah is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Decorah you get surprised by a frost after May 15 be ready to cover your purple rock cress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Decorah

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

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

Plants to Grow in Decorah

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