When to Plant Rock Cress in Fox Lake, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant rock cress by using the USDA zone info for Fox Lake.


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 quite a bit earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Fox Lake 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. Any later than that and your rock cress may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your rock cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Fox Lake the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Fox Lake is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Fox Lake 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 Fox Lake

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 Fox Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fox Lake.