One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A way of determining when to plant kale is to look at the USDA zone info for Florence.

Planting Calendar for Kale

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

Since kale are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant kale in Florence 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 little bit earlier by starting your kale indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Florence the average date of last frost happens on February 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Florence and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Florence you get a frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your kale if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Florence

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°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 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Florence

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