When to Plant Flowering Kale in Waterville, ME

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant flowering kale in Waterville can be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Flowering Kale

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

Flowering Kale do ok in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant flowering kale
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant flowering kale
Probably not a good time to plant flowering kale

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Waterville. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Waterville is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Waterville it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your flowering kale in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Waterville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Waterville

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