One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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 determine when it's possible to plant chinese cabbage in Wilmette by looking at the USDA zone info.

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 get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Wilmette 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chinese cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chinese cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Wilmette. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Wilmette may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Wilmette it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your chinese cabbage if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Wilmette

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 Wilmette

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