One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first chance to plant kale in Nappanee should be estimated by referring to 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.

You can plant kale a little bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant kale in Nappanee 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. If you wait any later than that and your kale may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Nappanee. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Nappanee is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Nappanee there is a last frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your kale in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Nappanee

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Nappanee

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