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 Salem should be reffered to in order to estimate when it's a good idea to plant napa cabbage.

Planting Calendar for Napa cabbage

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

Napa cabbage do well in cold which means that you can start planting them much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant napa cabbage in Salem 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your napa cabbage may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your napa cabbage indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Salem. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Salem may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Salem there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your napa cabbage if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

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 Salem

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