The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. 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 it's a good idea to plant watercress is to refer to the USDA zone info for Beaufort.

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

The earliest that you can plant watercress in Beaufort 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your watercress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. 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 March 15 in Beaufort. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Beaufort is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Beaufort you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your watercress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Beaufort

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 Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 Beaufort

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