One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's the best time to plant chinese cabbage is to examine the USDA zone info for Big Stone Gap.

Planting Calendar for Chinese cabbage

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

Since chinese cabbage are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chinese cabbage in Big Stone Gap 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 chinese cabbage and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your chinese cabbage may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your chinese cabbage indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Big Stone Gap. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Big Stone Gap is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Big Stone Gap you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your chinese cabbage in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Big Stone Gap

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 Low	0°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 Big Stone Gap

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Big Stone Gap.