How to grow kale and keep it cropping
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How to grow kale and keep it cropping
Kale is about the most forgiving green you can put in a bed, and the two ways people get a disappointing result are sowing it at the wrong end of the year and then not feeding it, because it's a leafy crop and leafy crops are hungry. Get those two right and one sowing will keep you picking for the best part of six months, which is a better return than almost anything else in the patch.
When to sow it
Sow February to April here, so the plants get established while it's still warm and then do their growing through the cool months. You can get away with a second sowing in August and September, though that lot will want to bolt once the heat arrives. Kale grown into winter is also better eating, because a cold snap genuinely does sweeten the leaves, and that isn't a gardener's story, it's the plant converting starch to sugar to protect itself from frost.
Six hours of sun suits it, and a bit of afternoon shade through the hottest weeks is a help rather than a problem, since here it's the west and the afternoon that does the damage.
Soil and feeding
Kale wants a pH somewhere between 6.0 and 7.0, and a test kit answers that in about ten minutes, which is worth doing before you spend a season feeding a bed that can't take it up. Work compost or aged manure through the bed before you plant, then feed it with something nitrogen-heavy every few weeks once it's growing, because pale leaves on kale are nearly always a nitrogen message rather than a watering one.
Blood and bone through the soil plus a liquid seaweed or fish feed through the season covers it without any complication.
Water and mulch
Water deeply a couple of times a week rather than lightly every day, and let the surface dry slightly in between, because kale hates sitting in wet soil far more than it minds being a bit thirsty. Mulch around the base and keep it back off the stems, and the bed will hold that moisture through the warm end of the season without you standing there with a hose.
The cabbage white, which is the real problem
The white butterflies fluttering over your brassicas are cabbage whites, and their green caterpillars are what chews the leaves to lace. Worth knowing that the cabbage moth is a different insect again, a small grey-brown one that flies at dusk, and the two get run together constantly even though the caterpillars behave differently.
On a home-sized bed, walking past every couple of days and squashing what you find does most of the job, and the caterpillars sit on the undersides of the leaves, so turn a few over rather than glancing at the tops. A fine mesh cover over the bed stops the butterflies laying in the first place and it is the single most effective thing you can do, though it's a method rather than something we sell, so you'll be making one up out of whatever you can find. For a bad outbreak, a vegetable dust will knock the caterpillars down, and it wants to go on in the evening and get washed off whatever you pick.
Aphids turn up on the growing tips in warm weather. A hard blast from the hose knocks most of them off, and the ladybirds and lacewings will handle the rest if you haven't sprayed them out of the garden.
How to pick it
Take the outer leaves when they're about the size of your hand and leave the growing centre alone, because that's what keeps producing. Picking regularly is what makes the plant keep going, so a plant you harvest off every week will outlast one you leave to get big and tough. When the leaves start coming through small and bitter the plant has had its run, and that's the time to pull it and sow again.
Shop related products
- Manutec Soil pH Test Kit. Checks the bed is in the range kale can use.
- Brunnings Blood and Bone Based Fertiliser 5kg. The nitrogen a leafy crop lives on.
- Brunnings Ultimate Dig It In Compost 30L. Goes through the bed before the seed does.
- Neutrog Whoflungdung Mulch 20kg. Holds the moisture in through the warm end of the season.
Did you know we also keep kale seed by the packet, vegetable dust for caterpillars, liquid seaweed and snail pellets in the shop, and several of those aren't on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.
The bagged and bottled range is in our garden centre, and if you bring in a chewed leaf we'll tell you what's been eating it.
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I like kale a great deal more in the garden than I do on the plate, and I'm at peace with that.
Cheers,
Candeece
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