One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

One way of making a decision about when to plant chinese cabbage is to examine the USDA zone info for Manteca.

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 do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Manteca is January. However, you really should wait until February 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 October. If you wait any later than that and your chinese cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your chinese cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Manteca the average date of last frost happens on February 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Manteca is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Manteca you get surprised by a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your chinese cabbage in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Manteca

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Manteca

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