One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

In Columbus you can estimate when it's the best time to plant napa cabbage by referring to the USDA zone info.

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 other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant napa cabbage in Columbus 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 napa cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your napa cabbage may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your napa cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Columbus. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Columbus may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Columbus there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your napa cabbage if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Columbus

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°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 -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Columbus

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