Goodlife very kindly brought some Daubenton's Kale with her to our get-together
last July. I had one of the variegated and I just wanted to show what a beautiful
plant it has grown into. It looks too good to pick!
Thank you Goodlife
:wave
:(//)
Good grower grow beautiful plants...you've done good job with it... :icon_thumleft:
Nice to see my how my 'babies' are doing. That variety is very quick grower and it looks won't suffer as it will grow new leaves almost as quick as you are able to pick and eat them :icon_cheers:
So next time you sit down for your sarnies...grab few leaves and 'shove' some in between and tuck in.. :icon_cheers:
Btw...now is ideal time to start rooting some of the small side shoots..they will be perfect for the plant sales...
Quote from: goodlife on April 08, 2014, 13:30:48
Good grower grow beautiful plants...you've done good job with it... :icon_thumleft:
Nice to see my how my 'babies' are doing. That variety is very quick grower and it looks won't suffer as it will grow new leaves almost as quick as you are able to pick and eat them :icon_cheers:
So next time you sit down for your sarnies...grab few leaves and 'shove' some in between and tuck in.. :icon_cheers:
Btw...now is ideal time to start rooting some of the small side shoots..they will be perfect for the plant sales...
Squash your variegated kale is looking lovely, as are its siblings here in the garden. They are the most stunning kales, could easily be front garden plants.
I took some of the earliest side shoots and just stuck them into the greenhouse soil and watered. I think they have all taken, but I am still waiting for new growth to be sure. It really is as easy as that, didn't even cut them just broke them off in the leaf axil and pushed into the soil.
There must be quite a few plants around after your generous gift last summer Goodlife. These kales should be far better known. :wave: So pretty, so useful :icon_cheers:
My one also looks bonny. Many thanks from me too.
Thanks for reminding about roots some more.
I also grew some from HSL seed and it is now beginning to flower so I am rather confused.
Quote from: Digeroo on April 10, 2014, 21:30:00
My one also looks bonny. Many thanks from me too.
Thanks for reminding about roots some more.
I also grew some from HSL seed and it is now beginning to flower so I am rather confused.
So did I and am similarly confused!
Quote from: Digeroo on April 10, 2014, 21:30:00
My one also looks bonny. Many thanks from me too.
Thanks for reminding about roots some more.
I also grew some from HSL seed and it is now beginning to flower so I am rather confused.
Not really that confusing. They got Daubenton kale which surprisingly flowered (it should not have done). This is how they managed to get a seed sample. That the plants grown from these seeds also flowered stands to reason (and that is how HSL got enough seed for the packets). With diligent cutting off any flower stems, the flowering tendency can be suppressed. After growing a new generation from c u t t i n g s and then another one, there should then be less and less flowering. But it needs a bit of selection to get them back to non-flowering or at least make them produce very few flowers.
Mother-in-law talks about 'making kales perennial' by cutting off all flowers until the plant stops producing more and then lives another year with good shoots the following spring. She still does it with PSB. This seems to be what people generally did with kales in the Midlands (and possibly elsewhere). I guess they did this because they did not have access to genuine Daubenton kales, but wanted the same benefits. Saves a lot of growing if their plants were longer lived and in wartime that was important, because there was so much other stuff they needed to grow from new every year to feed the family.
Hope this makes sense.
Daubenton's does flower, but not so often; mine flowered a couple of years ago, but didn't produce seed. Apparently the HSL plants only flowered after three years. From what I can make out, the shy flowering characteristic appears to be recessive, so crosses should flower normally. Perenniality is dominant though, so first generation crosses should have it; some biennial plants can be expected in the second generation. That's what I'm told anyway; I have some Daubenton's x tree collard crosses; one is budding, the others show no interest.
I doubt whether taking cuttings, which is a form of cloning, will have any effect at all on flowering. I do have some small HSL Daubenton's plants, and it's going to be interesting to see what they do!
I wish I could get my kale to look as good as that, I must do better lol
:toothy10:
Quote from: easyonthebrain on April 11, 2014, 11:23:27
I wish I could get my kale to look as good as that, I must do better lol
:toothy10:
I'm a bit shocked at how good it looks too! It hasn't had any special treatment,
it must be the variety. It's in a netted cage to protect it from birds but I'm wondering
about growing some in the flower border. Maybe the pigeons would be confused and
leave it alone.
Lovely plants. I hadn't seen variegated/creamy version before. I did see a gorgeous pink tinged one at a wee plant sale ( after someone bought it!)'It was perennial....not seen one since.