Collards · Serpukhov, Moscow Oblast, Russia
When to plant collards in Serpukhov
Main outdoor window
21 Apr - 19 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
1 May
In Serpukhov, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Sep - 31 Mar
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 Serpukhov
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
20 Mar - 17 Apr
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
19 Jun - 10 Jul
Counting back 89 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
21 Apr - 19 May
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 17 Apr, which is too cold for it to start.
Transplant
21 Apr - 19 May
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 17 Apr, which is too cold for it to start.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Mar
Collards through the year
Against the frost risk in Serpukhov
Why these dates
Sow in spring for summer picking or, better, twelve weeks before the first autumn frost for leaves through winter. Pick the lower leaves and the plant keeps rising.
Survives about -10C and sweetens sharply once night temperatures drop below freezing, which is why southern growers treat frost as the start of the season rather than the end.
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. Collards 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 Serpukhov.
With one correction, which is the note at the top of the page: the offset alone would put this crop in soil that is still too cold for it. Where the frost date and the soil temperature disagree, the dates here follow the soil, because a seed in cold ground either rots or waits, and a sowing made a fortnight later usually overtakes it.
The median frost-free season here is 160 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 Serpukhov
Other vegetables to time
Growing collards in Serpukhov
When should I plant collards in Serpukhov?
Aim for 21 Apr - 19 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 4 May - 1 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
Can I plant collards earlier in Serpukhov?
Frost is finished by about 17 Apr, but the soil is still too cold. Collards will not start until it reaches 7°C (44.6°F), and here that is around 21 Apr. Going in earlier usually means seed that rots or transplants that sit and sulk, and a later sowing catches them up.
When will collards be ready to harvest in Serpukhov?
Expect to start picking around 1 Sep - 31 Mar, based on 55 to 75 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will collards tolerate?
Survives about -10C and sweetens sharply once night temperatures drop below freezing, which is why southern growers treat frost as the start of the season rather than the end.