One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

A way of making a decision about when you can plant chinese cabbage is to look at the USDA zone info for San Rafael.

Planting Calendar for Chinese cabbage

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

Chinese cabbage do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in San Rafael 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else 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 few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in San Rafael. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for San Rafael and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in San Rafael you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so be sure to be ready to protect your chinese cabbage in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Rafael

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in San Rafael

You may be interested in your other planting guides for San Rafael.