When to Plant Kale in Tualatin, OR

One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant kale is to examine the USDA zone info for Tualatin.


Planting Calendar for Kale

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

Kale do well in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant kale in Tualatin 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. Starting your kale indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Tualatin is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Tualatin you get a frost after March 15 so always be ready to cover your kale if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Tualatin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)November 15
Lowest Expected Low15°F
Highest Expected Low20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Tualatin

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