Kale
Vegetable · cool season
When to plant
- Start seeds indoors about 6 weeks before planting out.
- Plant outdoors about 4 weeks before your average last spring frost.
- It can also be grown as a fall crop, timed back from your first fall frost.
- Ready to harvest about 55 days after planting out.
Flavor sweetens after frost.
Frost dates depend on where you live. Enter your ZIP code to get exact dates.
Dates by zone: 3a 3b 4a 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b 10a 10b
Growing basics
- Sun
- Part sun (4–6 hours)
- Spacing
- 12–18 in
- Soil temperature
- At least 45°F
- Time to harvest
- About 55 days
- Containers
- At least 3 gallons
- Plant family
- Cabbage family (brassicas)
- Harvest per plant
- About 2 lb
- Seeds keep
- About 4 years
Companions
Good neighbors: Onion (sets), Nasturtium, Dill, Thyme
Keep apart: the tomato family (nightshades). Cabbage-family crops and tomatoes compete and can stunt each other.
Keep apart: Horseradish. Horseradish spreads aggressively. Give it its own spot.
Keep apart: Strawberry (June-bearing), Strawberry (everbearing). Cabbage-family crops can stunt strawberries.
Keep apart: Mint. Mint spreads aggressively into neighbors. Keep it in a pot.
Keep apart: Fennel (bulb). Fennel slows the growth of most garden plants. Grow it on its own.
Keep apart: Sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke). Sunchokes spread aggressively and shade neighbors.
Varieties to try
- Red Russian 50 days: tender, flat leaves
- Dwarf Blue Curled 55 days: compact, curly
- Lacinato (Dinosaur) 60 days: dark, crinkled leaves
- Winterbor 60 days: very cold-hardy
Pests and problems
Grow it well
Tips
- Try winter sowing in milk jugs. Cut a milk jug almost in half, poke drainage holes in the bottom, and fill it with moist potting mix. Sow cold-hardy seeds like kale, onions, or native flowers, tape the jug shut with the cap off, and set it outside in late winter. The seeds sprout when the weather is right, already used to the cold.
- Pick greens from the outside in. Take the outer leaves of lettuce, kale, chard, and collards, and leave the center to keep growing. One planting keeps giving for weeks.
- Plant a fall garden. Kale, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and radishes sown in late summer grow well in cool weather, and many taste sweeter after a light frost.
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