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.

In Alma you can determine when it's possible to plant kale by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Kale

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

Since kale do well in moderate cold you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant kale in Alma 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 kale and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your kale may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Alma. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Alma is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Alma it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your kale if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Alma

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Alma

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