One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

You should be able to figure out when you can plant cabbage by looking at the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz.

Planting Calendar for Cabbage

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

Cabbage do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant cabbage in Santa Cruz 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 cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your cabbage may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Santa Cruz. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Cruz it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your cabbage if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Cruz

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 Santa Cruz

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Cruz.