Land cress · Al Madīnah, Basra, Iraq
When to plant land cress in Al Madīnah
Main outdoor window
20 Mar - 17 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
23 January
In Al Madīnah, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Oct - 30 Apr
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Al Madīnah
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow for overwintering
5-26 Sep
Counting back 84 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
20 Mar - 17 Apr
Eight weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Oct - 30 Apr
Land cress through the year
Against the frost risk in Al Madīnah
Why these dates
Sow in late summer, about eight weeks after midsummer, for picking from autumn right through winter. Spring sowings bolt before they bulk up.
Genuinely hardy to -12C or below and often the greenest thing in the garden in midwinter.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Land cress are timed for direct sowing 8 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Al Madīnah.
The median frost-free season here is 331 days, against 50 to 70 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Al Madīnah
Other vegetables to time
Growing land cress in Al Madīnah
When should I plant land cress in Al Madīnah?
Aim for 20 Mar - 17 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 5 Apr - 3 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will land cress be ready to harvest in Al Madīnah?
Expect to start picking around 1 Oct - 30 Apr, based on 50 to 70 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will land cress tolerate?
Genuinely hardy to -12C or below and often the greenest thing in the garden in midwinter.