When to Plant Purple Rock Cress in Watertown, NY

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 getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant purple rock cress is to look at the USDA zone info for Watertown.


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.

You can plant purple rock cress earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

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 Watertown 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 purple rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your purple rock cress may not have a chance to fully mature. 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

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Watertown. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Watertown is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Watertown last frost occurs after May 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your purple rock cress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Watertown

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 Watertown

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