When to Plant Bok Choi in California, PA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant bok choi is to consult the USDA zone info for California.


Planting Calendar for Bok Choi

Frost tolerance for bok choi: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Bok Choi can survive in a little bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant bok choi
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant bok choi
Probably not a good time to plant bok choi

The earliest that you can plant bok choi in California 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 bok choi and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your bok choi may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your bok choi indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in California. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for California is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in California last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your bok choi in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for California

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in California

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