When to Plant Watercress in Kill Devil Hills, NC

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 way of figuring out when you can plant watercress is to examine the USDA zone info for Kill Devil Hills.


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 do ok in mild cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant watercress
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant watercress
Probably not a good time to plant watercress

The earliest that you can plant watercress in Kill Devil Hills 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 fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your watercress indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Kill Devil Hills. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Kill Devil Hills and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Kill Devil Hills it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your watercress if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Kill Devil Hills

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)November 15
Lowest Expected Low15°F
Highest Expected Low20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Kill Devil Hills

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Kill Devil Hills.