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.

A way of determining when to plant watercress is to look at the USDA zone info for Poplar Bluff.

Planting Calendar for Watercress

Frost tolerance for watercress:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Watercress can survive in some cold which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant watercress in Poplar Bluff 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 watercress and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your watercress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your watercress indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Poplar Bluff the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Poplar Bluff may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Poplar Bluff it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your watercress if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Poplar Bluff

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Poplar Bluff

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Poplar Bluff.