The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to determine when you can plant rock cress by using the USDA zone info for Deerfield.

Planting Calendar for Rock Cress

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

Rock Cress do ok in cold weather which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Deerfield 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your rock cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Deerfield. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Deerfield is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Deerfield there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your rock cress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Deerfield

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 Deerfield

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