Kale · Fes, Fes-Meknes, Morocco
When to plant kale in Fes
Main outdoor window
20 Jan - 10 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
3 February
In Fes, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
16 Mar - 5 Apr
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 Fes
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
23 Dec - 13 Jan
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
29 Aug - 19 Sep
Counting back 89 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
20 Jan - 10 Feb
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
20 Jan - 10 Feb
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
16 Mar - 5 Apr
Kale through the year
Against the frost risk in Fes
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 Fes.
The median frost-free season here is 317 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 Fes
Other vegetables to time
Growing kale in Fes
When should I plant kale in Fes?
Aim for 20 Jan - 10 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 7-28 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will kale be ready to harvest in Fes?
Expect to start picking around 16 Mar - 5 Apr, 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.