One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

One way of figuring out when to plant bittercress is to use the USDA zone info for Peru.

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 barely cold tolerant you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Peru is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Peru there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your bittercress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Peru

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 Peru

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