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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant cauliflower is to check out the USDA zone info for Ripon.

Planting Calendar for Cauliflower

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

Cauliflower do well in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant cauliflower in Ripon 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 cauliflower and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cauliflower may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your cauliflower indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Ripon the average date of last frost happens on February 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ripon may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Ripon it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your cauliflower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ripon

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 Ripon

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