Do not pull! You can't get earlier greens than from over-wintered plants, and the foliage is rich as well. Later if you want you can let some continue to the flowering stage (a great draw for pollinators). Brassicas are biennial so the plants will go to seed early in the spring and will produce very little foliage after that.

They are great in spring, and will last to late April (here in the Midwest, with the winter we are having, my kale will be good well into May). I plant them for early greens primarily, for winter I prefer the more productive collards.

They are sweet and delicious when budding. When they get too old the leaves are bitter, but if you boil them for 2-3 minutes it removes the bitterness.

I grow them as perennials :). If you cut them back during or after flowering, and do that with subsequent attempts to flower, they will revert to leaves-only in the fall and you will get another winter crop. Or sometimes they just croak. I posted a thread here, asking folks why/how this works, but nobody seemed to really know. I think it has to do with timing. Anyway, it often works :).

A friend has kale plants in the greenhouse about six years old, she pinches the flowers off each time they appear.

I find it easier to let the plants self-sow, creating a continual crop of fall and spring germinated new plants.

This is also my first year growing Kale.

Do you end up staking them after spring, as the Toscano is already getting tall?

Double Post

This post was edited by Gary_Snail on Sat, Mar 16, 13 at 15:53

You could stake them. I am lazy and just let mine flop over and then grow upwards from the new spot ;).

What Nila Jones said -- I had a flowering cabbage which lasted 5 years by following that technique and protecting well in the winter.

Hey Dennis!

Mine always bolts and goes to seed.I just tore out 75 feet of kale today out of one of my high tunnels. Some of it was just starting to flower. I tore it out to make room for tomatoes. There is way more money in Tomatoes than Kale. I have seedlings to replant in another high tunnel ASAP.

Jay

Ha, tell it to the guy who sells kale at the Farmer Market, here in Frozenland. He says 200 bunches go in 1.5 hours - he sells out by 9:30 am. Then people fight over the leftover greens (chard and salad mixes), and he goes home clean as a whistle at 10:30 am. But kale always goes first.

The problem with tomatoes is that there is a lot of competition. And people are starting to realize that kale is a better food than tomatoes (more nutrition, less inflammation), and also that you need to eat well in February March too. I am buying there because I ran out of almost everything except apples (I only have one hoop house with kale under), only one other hoop house is up with overwintering onions inside. Even garlic shoots are not up yet, nor will they be anytime soon with the next week being mostly below freezing.

Glib- Too funny! I have been selling my Kale from this planting for the last 6 months. I gotta get the tomatoes in so I will be the first with tomatoes at my markets.

I agree with you about Kale, that is why I am doubling my spring plantings. I am hoping that will pay off.

Jay

We talking about this type of Kale, right?

I copied this from the internet, no ideal who Dan is, but itâÂÂs his picture so IâÂÂll post the link below.

And I might say that is one nice looking Kale bush too. If it were in my garden, it would look more like an Army recruit.

Now, about that Toscano, again.

If the stock is touching the ground will it rot?

Also, what do you mean that you cut them back?

If you top them wonâÂÂt they just die?

IâÂÂm kind-of addicted to Kale now.

Also, does everyone know how to delete a post?

Here is a link that might be useful: DanO's