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.

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

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 one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Worcester 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 few weeks earlier by starting your rock cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Worcester and it is different every year. Half of the time in Worcester last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to protect your rock cress if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Worcester

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 Worcester

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