I have so enjoyed this crop during this winter that I would like to have it growing to crop during this coming summer. Can this be done?
If you don't over harvest you plants this winter..in spring they put loads of new growth on and you have 'tons' of new leaves to eat again. Once the flower stems appear, leaf production will slow down..but you can eat the flower heads too..just like sprouting broccoli.
This year I had several kale plants that I left to flower for seed..but for my surprise they started to produce new growth too and several of them do have enough leaves for harvesting.
The secondary growth is not as 'fruitful' as with young plants..but yes..with a bit of care you can keep them going for quite long until you are ready to plant some newly sown plants and start it all over again.
Don't forget to give some feed for you kale..they will need it if they are to produce more succulent leaves for you to eat. It perharps better to leave feeding for now...but in spring, sprinkling of chicken pellets or some other form of feed is good.
Thanks for that idea. It sounds worth a go! But whereas all the seed instructions state that you should sow them in May and plant them out in July/ August for winter crops, I have sown new seeds in pots in my cold greenhouse in November last and they will be ready to plant out in Feb/March and I wondered if these would give me some leafage during the summer or autumn.
Well..kale is more forgiving with sowing dates..I usually sow mine end of June..beginning of July and still get decent size plants before winter.
You can sow kale almost any time..often their seeds are mixed in into salad mix packets..particularly 'winter mixes'..so maybe without knowing you have already eaten different varieties of kale but in their more immature stage.
If you have a go sowing little and often but slightly different times of the year..it will give you really good idea what works best for you needs.
I tend to eat kale only during winter and spring when there is not that much variety of veg otherwise around.
So bit later sowing is fine for my needs.
Thanks for that Goodlife1 It gives me more confidence to continue with them.
For summer use I sow at intervals from early March and start harvesting late May. I cut off the most mature leaves before they get too tough and leave the younger leaves to follow on. That way you can keep harvesting the same plants for a few weeks.
I had some redbor which self seeded and were very nice stir fried, but I did not like the flavour once the weather got hot.