One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In New Castle you can determine when it's the best time to plant chinese cabbage by using 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.

You can plant chinese cabbage a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in New Castle 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 fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your chinese cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for New Castle is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in New Castle last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your chinese cabbage if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New Castle

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 New Castle

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Castle.