One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant chinese cabbage is to use the USDA zone info for Lafayette.

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 one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Lafayette 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. Any later than that and your chinese cabbage may not have a chance to really do well. 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 Lafayette. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Lafayette is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Lafayette you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your chinese cabbage in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lafayette

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 Lafayette

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