One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 determining when it's possible to plant red cabbage is to check out the USDA zone info for Dover.

Planting Calendar for Red cabbage

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

Red cabbage are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant red cabbage in Dover 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 red cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your red cabbage may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your red cabbage indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Dover and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Dover it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your red cabbage if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dover

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 Dover

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