One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 common way of determining when to plant watercress is to consult the USDA zone info for Madras.

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.

Since watercress are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant watercress in Madras 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 really do well. If you are starting your watercress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Madras. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Madras is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Madras you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your watercress if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madras

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Madras

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