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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant rock cress is to use the USDA zone info for Morton.

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 well in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Morton 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. If you are starting your rock cress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Morton the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Morton is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Morton it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your rock cress if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Morton

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 Morton

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