When to Plant Red cabbage in Machesney Park, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant red cabbage in Machesney Park should be determined by referring to the USDA zone info.

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Planting Calendar for Red cabbage

Frost tolerance for red cabbage: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since red cabbage do well in cold you can plant them much earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant red cabbage
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant red cabbage
Probably not a good time to plant red cabbage

The earliest that you can plant red cabbage in Machesney Park is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant red cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your red cabbage may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your red cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Machesney Park. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Machesney Park is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Machesney Park it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your red cabbage in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Machesney Park

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 Machesney Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Machesney Park.