When to Plant Napa cabbage in Westchester, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant napa cabbage is to examine the USDA zone info for Westchester.


Planting Calendar for Napa cabbage

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

You can plant napa cabbage much earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant napa cabbage in Westchester 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 napa cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your napa cabbage may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your napa cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Westchester. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Westchester is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Westchester you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your napa cabbage if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Westchester

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 Westchester

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