Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant cabbage is to refer to the USDA zone info for Rochester.

Planting Calendar for Cabbage

Frost tolerance for cabbage:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

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

The earliest that you can plant cabbage in Rochester 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 cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Rochester the average date of last frost happens on May 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rochester is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Rochester last frost occurs after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your cabbage in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

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 Rochester

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