When to Plant Kale in Waunakee, WI

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.

A common way of estimating when it's possible to plant kale is to check out the USDA zone info for Waunakee.


Planting Calendar for Kale

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

Kale are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

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 Waunakee 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your kale may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your kale indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Waunakee. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Waunakee is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Waunakee you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your kale if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Waunakee

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 Waunakee

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