Kale · Colina, Santiago Metropolitan, Chile
When to plant kale in Colina
Main outdoor window
13 Sep - 4 Oct
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
27 September
In Colina, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
7-27 Nov
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 Colina
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
16 Aug - 6 Sep
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
13 Feb - 6 Mar
Counting back 89 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
13 Sep - 4 Oct
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
13 Sep - 4 Oct
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
7-27 Nov
Kale through the year
Against the frost risk in Colina
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 Colina.
The median frost-free season here is 249 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 Colina
Other vegetables to time
Growing kale in Colina
When should I plant kale in Colina?
Aim for 13 Sep - 4 Oct in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 5-26 Oct - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will kale be ready to harvest in Colina?
Expect to start picking around 7-27 Nov, 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.