Kale · Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
When to plant kale in Mannheim
Main outdoor window
4-25 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
18 April
In Mannheim, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
29 May - 18 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 Mannheim
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
7-28 Mar
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
19 Jul - 9 Aug
Counting back 89 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
4-25 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
4-25 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
29 May - 18 Jun
Kale through the year
Against the frost risk in Mannheim
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 Mannheim.
The median frost-free season here is 202 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 Mannheim
Other vegetables to time
Growing kale in Mannheim
When should I plant kale in Mannheim?
Aim for 4-25 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 13 Apr - 4 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will kale be ready to harvest in Mannheim?
Expect to start picking around 29 May - 18 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.