When to Plant Purple Rock Cress in North Platte, NE

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 making a decision about when it's possible to plant purple rock cress is to examine the USDA zone info for North Platte.


Planting Calendar for Purple Rock Cress

Frost tolerance for purple rock cress: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Purple Rock Cress do well in cold which means that you can plant them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant purple rock cress
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant purple rock cress
Probably not a good time to plant purple rock cress

The earliest that you can plant purple rock cress in North Platte 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 purple rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your purple rock cress may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your purple rock cress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in North Platte. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for North Platte may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in North Platte last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your purple rock cress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for North Platte

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in North Platte

You may be interested in your other planting guides for North Platte.