When to Plant Cabbage in Fort Dodge, IA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when you can plant cabbage in Fort Dodge by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Cabbage

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

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

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant cabbage
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant cabbage
Probably not a good time to plant cabbage

The earliest that you can plant cabbage in Fort Dodge is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your cabbage may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your cabbage indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Fort Dodge the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Fort Dodge and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Fort Dodge you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your cabbage if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Dodge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Fort Dodge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Dodge.