When to Plant Bittercress in Fairfield, IA

One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Fairfield can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea to plant bittercress.


Planting Calendar for Bittercress

Frost tolerance for bittercress: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since bittercress are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant bittercress in Fairfield 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 bittercress and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bittercress may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your bittercress indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Fairfield. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fairfield 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 Fairfield it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your bittercress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fairfield

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Fairfield

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