One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 Fort Dodge can be read to figure out when it's the best time to plant rock cress.

Planting Calendar for Rock Cress

Frost tolerance for rock cress:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant rock cress earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Fort Dodge is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your rock cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your rock cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Fort Dodge. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Fort Dodge may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Fort Dodge you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your rock cress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Dodge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Fort Dodge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Dodge.