One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 figuring out when you can plant bittercress is to look at the USDA zone info for Benton Harbor.

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.

Bittercress do ok in some cold which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant bittercress in Benton Harbor 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 really do well. If you are starting your bittercress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Benton Harbor the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Benton Harbor is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Benton Harbor it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your bittercress in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Benton Harbor

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Benton Harbor

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Benton Harbor.