Hey,
Does anyone grow their kale and collards all summer or do you pull them once it starts getting hot and replant for fall? My dino kale always gets white flies and some cabbage worms, not enough to kill the plant, but enough to make them look like they are meant for the chickens. Collards continue to grow strong but have become a little rubbery. I’m in zone 7.
thanks
You have to grow them in shade, and then they grow all summer. Failing that, under corn, tomatoes, or other shade casting plant. They are true understory plants and they prefer it that way (to full sun).
I grow kale all summer long, in my gh and out in the garden through the late fall, early winter. I am in zone 4 and start my plants from seed in late winter and plant a few different varieties in my unheated gh in April. They do well with the cool temperatures in spring and even when the gh heats up on warm sunny days. I water well and deeply every morning…My favorite varieties to grow are Lancinato and Red kale. The leaves are tender and tasty when picked young and even when more mature the leaves are still great for soups and stir fries etc… Here are a few recent pictures of the kale in my gh… The gh has good airflow by opening the door and windows.
Hey, thanks for the pic and info.
After three days around 95 degrees, the laciano kale simply looks beat up. The curly leaf and, strangely, the Red Russian seem better.
I go through this every year. I let them continue to grow and fight off the white flies, they end up about 4 feet tall and once it starts to cool, they will become productive again.
Your kale looks great! Great job.
Beautiful lacinato, but it is not kale. it is called kale only for profit reasons (sells for more $ at the supermarket). It is brassica oleracea, but its own variety. Probably closest to cabbage genetically, but as powerful nutritionally as true kale.
Here is mine from 2 weeks ago, and since I am a believer in mixed beds for biodynamical reasons, it is planted with carrots and a few turnips found their way in too, and there is red giant mustard flowering and making seeds for next year.
up north here they grow well all summer but get lots of bugs come july so i pull mine mid june and replant beg of aug.
Beautiful garden, glib! Yes, Lancinato is a form of cabbage, but also kale is a variety of leaf cabbage. It just does not form a head.
Thank you…Red Russian is another favorite variety of mine . It also does well in the heat, but will wilt a bit by mid afternoon if it does not get plenty of water in the morning… They both need lots of water to keep going strong throughout the hot summer. We had an unusual hot summer last season, many days in the mid nineties but both varieties sailed through just fine and kept on producing until a heavy freeze killed them back in the early winter. I dealt with some white fly later in the season, but not enough to do much damage…
Here in zone 6 KY, I plant kale in July to harvest in fall, winter and early spring, but by the time 80 degrees rolls around most days (late May), it’s totally done. Growth slows down, gets tough and bitter, and starts bolting.
How did you deal with the white flies?
It was late in the season when they started to appear so by the time they started to do a bit of damage the cold weather that arrived deterred them pretty quickly. I let them be…
this is strange. for me collard is nuke proof, but somehow kale always gives me trouble.
Very nice!
I had a great year with spinach, beets, and chard after covering them with tulle from the craft store. Yields were limited in the past due to leaf minors but this year not a single tunnel.
The white flies start to show up about now. they make those little webs under the leaf. The webs seem to wash off real easy and I don’t tell anyone in my family that there were bugs on their food. Seems to work.
That is great, Jim! Tulle is great for that! My spinach and beets had erratic germination this year(replanted twice.) so I was bummed after having a great season last year. I should replant for fall but I think I will order new seeds from a different company next year and try again for 2018 .
Lol…No need to explain about the bugs and freak the family out… My young grandson gardens with me on occasion so he knows that the bugs are a natural process and we just pick and wash them off together before using. 
