When to Plant Flowering Kale in Hamilton, MT

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.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant flowering kale is to refer to the USDA zone info for Hamilton.


Planting Calendar for Flowering Kale

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

Since flowering kale do well in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive 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 Hamilton 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. Any later than that and your flowering kale may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your flowering kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Hamilton. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hamilton is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Hamilton you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your flowering kale in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hamilton

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 Hamilton

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