Last Updated on September 13, 2026
How Many Kale Plants per Square Foot?
1 kale plant per square foot. A kale plant is a small tree by midsummer, a foot and a half across, and you harvest it leaf by leaf for months, so one per square is the right call.
The spacing pattern
| Square foot method | 1 per square, planted in the center |
|---|---|
| 4 x 4 bed (16 squares) | 16 kale plants |
| 4 x 8 bed (32 squares) | 32 kale plants |
Kale keeps producing from the same plant from spring through hard frost, and the leaves get sweeter after frost. Give each plant its own square and it will fill it; four plants feed a family.
Planting the square
- Start indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last frost, or buy transplants.
- Set one plant in the center of each square, 2 to 4 weeks before the last frost; kale takes cold.
- Pick the lowest leaves first and leave the crown; the plant keeps growing upward all season.
Tim’s growing notes
Kale goes out with the other cool-season transplants; the timing is on the Seed Starting Calendar, and it is a natural for the fall garden in the Fall Gardening Checklist.
When to plant kale
These are the windows the Plan My Garden planner uses, counted from your average last spring frost. Enter your frost date on the seed starting calendar to turn them into dates. Kale goes out with broccoli and cabbage, weeks before the last frost.
| Start indoors | 10 weeks before to 8 weeks before your last frost |
|---|---|
| Transplant out | 4 weeks before to 2 weeks before your last frost |
| Days to maturity | about 55 days |
How I grow them, in brief
Kale is a cool-season transplant: it starts indoors about ten weeks before the last frost, alongside the onions, and goes out into the bed four to two weeks before the frost date, when it can take a freeze. From then on it is a harvest-as-you-go crop, lowest leaves first, crown left alone, and the same plant produces from late spring until well after the first hard frost, when the leaves turn sweet. The indoor setup I use for it is in How to Start Seeds Indoors, and it is on the Fall Gardening Checklist for the second planting.
Where I get seed
Wood Prairie’s organic kale includes Lacinato, Red Ursa and White Russian. Code PMG5 takes 5 percent off.
Quick questions
How many kale plants do I need?
Four is plenty for a family that eats it weekly; they produce for six months.
Can I plant kale closer for baby leaves?
Yes, 4 to 9 per square if you cut it young as salad kale, but then treat it like lettuce and replant.
Let the planner place them
Plan My Garden is free to start: draw your beds, pick kale and everything else you want to grow, and it places each plant at the right spacing and gives you a planting schedule for your zip code.
Related: Square Foot Gardening Chart · Seed Starting Calendar · Fall Gardening Checklist
