Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Helena you can determine when you can plant chinese cabbage by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chinese cabbage

Frost tolerance for chinese cabbage:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since chinese cabbage are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Helena 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 chinese cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your chinese cabbage may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your chinese cabbage indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Helena. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Helena and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Helena you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your chinese cabbage if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Helena

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Helena

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