Rocket · New York City, New York, United States
When to plant rocket in New York City
Main outdoor window
1-11 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
29 March
In New York City, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
31 Mar - 15 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 New York City
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
13 Sep - 4 Oct
Counting back 59 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
1-11 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
31 Mar - 15 Apr
Rocket through the year
Against the frost risk in New York City
Why these dates
Ready in a month. Sow every ten days spring and autumn; skip high summer, when it turns unpleasantly hot and bolts within weeks.
Withstands -7C and holds usable leaf well into winter under cover.
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. Rocket are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for New York City.
The median frost-free season here is 249 days, against 30 to 45 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in New York City
Other vegetables to time
Growing rocket in New York City
When should I plant rocket in New York City?
Aim for 1-11 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 11-21 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will rocket be ready to harvest in New York City?
Expect to start picking around 31 Mar - 15 Apr, based on 30 to 45 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will rocket tolerate?
Withstands -7C and holds usable leaf well into winter under cover.