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

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant napa cabbage is to examine the USDA zone info for Madison.

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 are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant napa cabbage in Madison 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 napa cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your napa cabbage may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your napa cabbage indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Madison the average date of last frost happens on May 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Madison may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Madison you get surprised by a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your napa cabbage in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

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 Madison

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