bananimal

Planted a few seeds last year and the heat did them in fast. I love kale in Caldo Verde, aka Caldo Gallego.

Anybody?

Roslyn

I've grown that kind of kale before. It's also called dinosaur kale, right? At the time, I was in Ithaca, NY, so it was really easy to grow throughout the summer. Have you tried growing it in the winter so that it doesn't die?

For me, the good things were that it's really hardy to cold temperatures and I really love the taste. The bad things were that it's a slow grower and in the fall it had a lot of caterpillars that we had to pick off. It also ended up getting big gray aphids in the fall. Ick.

I'm in North Carolina now and as soon as the weather warms up just a bit, I intend to grow it again. To keep off caterpillars, I'm going to grow it under some white tulle this time.

The Hollyberry Lady

Richard

Like most Brassicas, Kale likes cool nights (45F) and temperate days (60F - 70F). Sustained temperatures above 75F will cause the leaf of Brassicas and Lettuces in general to take on a bitter flavor. Cool them back down for a week (while still growing) and the bitterness goes away.

I like to grow Kale in a 10-inch pot so that it gets some serious roots and hence produces a lot of foliage. It doesn't require much fertilizer, consider a 5-1-1 Fish Emulsion or 20-5-5 water-soluble with micronutrients. If you are growing Lacinato, then I also recommend you try a pot each of Silver Rib Kale -- also sold as Winter Bor, and Red Kale (Bor).

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