When to Plant Chinese cabbage in Waukee, IA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when to plant chinese cabbage is to use the USDA zone info for Waukee.


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 are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Waukee 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 chinese cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your chinese cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your chinese cabbage indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Waukee. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Waukee is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Waukee last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your chinese cabbage if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Waukee

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 Waukee

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