One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when it's possible to plant napa cabbage in Normal by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Napa cabbage

Frost tolerance for napa cabbage:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Napa cabbage do well in cold which means that you can start planting them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant napa cabbage in Normal 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 napa cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your napa cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your napa cabbage indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Normal. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Normal is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Normal you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your napa cabbage if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Normal

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Normal

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