One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 estimating when it's a good idea to plant decorative kale is to check out the USDA zone info for Rittman.

Planting Calendar for Decorative Kale

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

Decorative Kale tend to make it in mild cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant decorative kale in Rittman 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 decorative kale and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your decorative kale may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your decorative kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Rittman. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rittman is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rittman you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your decorative kale if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rittman

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Rittman

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