Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate 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 examine the USDA zone info for Minneapolis.

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 means that you can plant them much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Minneapolis 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 rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. 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 couple of weeks earlier by starting your rock cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Minneapolis the average date of last frost happens on May 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Minneapolis is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Minneapolis it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to cover your rock cress if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Minneapolis

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Minneapolis

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