When to Plant Watercress in Honesdale, PA

One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant watercress is to check out the USDA zone info for Honesdale.


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 do ok in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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 Honesdale 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. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your watercress indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Honesdale. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Honesdale may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Honesdale you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your watercress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Honesdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°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 -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Honesdale

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