Kale · Bayan Nur, Inner Mongolia, China
When to plant kale in Bayan Nur
Main outdoor window
12 Apr - 3 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
26 April
In Bayan Nur, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
6-26 Jun
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Bayan Nur
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
15 Mar - 5 Apr
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
22 Jun - 13 Jul
Counting back 89 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
12 Apr - 3 May
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
12 Apr - 3 May
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
6-26 Jun
Kale through the year
Against the frost risk in Bayan Nur
Why these dates
Spring sowings feed you through summer; the sowing made twelve weeks before first frost is the one that carries you through winter.
Survives -12C and sweetens markedly below freezing as starches convert to sugars. Frost is a feature of this crop, not a threat.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Kale are timed from 6 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Bayan Nur.
The median frost-free season here is 167 days, against 55 to 75 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Bayan Nur
Other vegetables to time
Growing kale in Bayan Nur
When should I plant kale in Bayan Nur?
Aim for 12 Apr - 3 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 27 Apr - 18 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will kale be ready to harvest in Bayan Nur?
Expect to start picking around 6-26 Jun, based on 55 to 75 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will kale tolerate?
Survives -12C and sweetens markedly below freezing as starches convert to sugars. Frost is a feature of this crop, not a threat.