When to Plant Napa cabbage in Winnetka, IL

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

By checking out the USDA zone info for Winnetka you should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant napa cabbage.


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 are very cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant napa cabbage in Winnetka 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. Any later than that and your napa cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your napa cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Winnetka. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Winnetka may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Winnetka you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your napa cabbage in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Winnetka

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 Winnetka

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