Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. 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 Northampton should be used to determine when it's a good idea 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.

Rock Cress are very cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Northampton 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 grow to maturity. 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 Northampton. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Northampton is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Northampton there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your rock cress if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Northampton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Northampton

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