Kale · Overland Park, Kansas, United States
When to plant kale in Overland Park
Main outdoor window
1-22 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
15 April
In Overland Park, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
26 May - 15 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 Overland Park
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
4-25 Mar
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
9-30 Jul
Counting back 89 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
1-22 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
1-22 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
26 May - 15 Jun
Kale through the year
Against the frost risk in Overland Park
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 Overland Park.
The median frost-free season here is 195 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 Overland Park
Other vegetables to time
Growing kale in Overland Park
When should I plant kale in Overland Park?
Aim for 1-22 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 8-29 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will kale be ready to harvest in Overland Park?
Expect to start picking around 26 May - 15 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.