Allotments 4 All

Hello all.

Whilst away on holiday the cabbage white destroyed the leaves on my curly kale and swede. Unfortunately I had planted them next to each other and I'm unable to tell which is which! Are there any clues as the 'ball' of both look so similar?

Regards

Bluecar

Ball? Only swedes have ball..the edible part of the root. Curly kale should have just a straight stem.

Hello Goodlife.

The bottom end looks the same! One looks a bit more oval (pointed, but a blunt point, towards the top). The curly kale were given to me so perhaps they aren't curly kale. I haven't tried posting a picture yet, but weather permitting I'll see whether I can do that tomorrow.

The colour of the stems are almost identical so does this help to identify if they are both swedes?

Regards

Bluecar

Poke about underground and see if you can find roots.

Why worry? Its October. If they grow new curly leaves you have a crop. If they dont, you won't have swedes either !

Had both for lunch with lamb chops yum !

Ah...you mean with 'ball' about the top growth..
You just have to wait to see when some leaves uncurl from the 'ball'.
Saying that...you should have a 'swede' there by now ...as if they overwinter as swede plants and no 'ball', they won't produce it anymore in spring but go straight to the flowering mode.
When did you plant them?

Typical - I forgot to take my camera with me today!

Hopefully I'll remember tomorrow.

Goodlife, I'm sure I've got swede; it's just whether I've got some curly Kale as well

Regards

Bluecar

This is a photo. I know which are definitely swede, but it's whether I've also got curly kale and from comments I don't think I have.

http://www.imageshack.com/i/1n8q8nj

I'm obviously doing something wrong as the photo isn't coming up.

Regards

Bluecar

I can see 1 photo and those are definitely swedes
If you have others with different colour stem near soil lever, they would be the kale.
You can see from your photo how the swede 'ball' extend higher up and is purple..well...kale would not have colouring and curly kale would be green stemmed all the way down.

Uploaded with ImageShack.com

They look like swedes to me too.

Quote from: bluecar on October 19, 2013, 15:42:15
This is a photo. I know which are definitely swede, but it's whether I've also got curly kale and from comments I don't think I have.

http://www.imageshack.com/i/1n8q8nj

I'm obviously doing something wrong as the photo isn't coming up.

Regards

Bluecar

Your photo is 100% SWEDE.


Here is a photo of curly kale plants


The swede (Swedish Turnip) is a brassica with a swollen root. Notice the curly kale does not have any swelling at the root or the base of the plant.

Thank you all for your help. I had more or less come to that conclusion. I don't know what I did with the curly kale I was given - perhaps I didn't plant them!

I am somewhat surprised by the kale pic, I though it had a piece of stalk about the ground before the leaves start, but your leaves seem to be coming out just about ground level.

Maybe the slugs/pigeons/rabbits/deer got your kale and it sunk without trace.   

Quote from: bluecar on October 20, 2013, 08:01:11
Thank you all for your help. I had more or less come to that conclusion. I don't know what I did with the curly kale I was given - perhaps I didn't plant them!

I had a similar experience back in the spring - it happens in the frenzy at planting time!

I grew cauliflower plants & sprouting broccoli, I was going to share them with one of my lottie mates. As time went on I never saw any cauliflower, he never saw any vroccoli. It turned out he had all the caulis I had all the broccoli & the two of us are still puzzled how we mixed things up!

All my brassicas were decimated by the cabbage white chompers despite being netted (I actually watched one butterfly squeeze through the netting!!). But my swedes, curly kale and Brussels have now recovered - I also planted Cabbalo Nero and that is making a comeback as well. I suppose I will have to re-net them from the pigeons pretty soon. Oh and I invested in some closer mesh netting for next year.