One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. 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 to plant kale is to check out the USDA zone info for Ripon.

Planting Calendar for Kale

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

Kale are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant kale in Ripon is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant kale and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your kale may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Ripon the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Ripon is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Ripon last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your kale if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ripon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°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 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Ripon

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