When to Plant Chinese cabbage in Potsdam, NY

One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The USDA zone info for Potsdam can be reffered to in order to estimate when it's a good idea to plant chinese cabbage.


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 tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant chinese cabbage
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant chinese cabbage
Probably not a good time to plant chinese cabbage

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Potsdam 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 chinese cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your chinese cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your chinese cabbage indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Potsdam. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Potsdam is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Potsdam you get surprised by a frost after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your chinese cabbage if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Potsdam

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 Potsdam

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