One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

One way of getting a good idea when it's the best time to plant napa cabbage is to check out the USDA zone info for Austin.

Planting Calendar for Napa cabbage

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

Since napa cabbage are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them much earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant napa cabbage in Austin is March. However, you really should wait until April 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 August. Any later than that and your napa cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your napa cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Austin. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Austin and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Austin last frost occurs after May 15 be ready to protect your napa cabbage in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Austin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Austin

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