One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

It's a good idea to estimate when it's the best time to plant chinese cabbage by checking out the USDA zone info for Washington.

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 moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Washington 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. If you wait any later than that and your chinese cabbage may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your chinese cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Washington. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Washington is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Washington last frost occurs after March 15 so always be ready to cover your chinese cabbage if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Washington

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Washington

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