One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Palo Alto you should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant chinese cabbage.

Planting Calendar for Chinese cabbage

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

You can plant chinese cabbage just a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Palo Alto 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. Starting your chinese cabbage indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Palo Alto. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Palo Alto is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Palo Alto there is a last frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your chinese cabbage if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Palo Alto

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 Palo Alto

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Palo Alto.