Grow Enough Kale to Stuff Your Freezer
Lacinato kale is my favorite vegetable. Here's how I grow enough to eat fresh and have plenty available for preserving.
If you’ve grown brassicas (kale, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, Brussels, radishes, and more) before, you’ve probably experienced some of the issues that I have:
-Heads that don’t form properly for some reason or another.
-Huge plants that take up a lot of space with only a small part that tastes good.
-A multitude of pest issues.
I’ve grown them all and had some success, but also plenty of failure that I started to question whether I really wanted to spend that much time on this family of vegetables.
A few years ago, I decided that kale was the one I really wanted to make work well in my garden. This is for a few reasons:
-Kale doesn’t require forming a head which can be tricky to do. You’re virtually guaranteed some success - because you can use *all* of the leaves!
-Kale leaves are far more nutritious than most other brassica vegetables.
-Kale freezes wonderfully compared to other brassica crops. Broccoli, for example, loses a lot of appeal after going into the freezer.
-Once processed, kale takes up very little space in the freezer (more on that later).
-I really like the flavor.
-Even when you have some pest damage, kale typically outgrows it. All is not lost if a slug munches on some kale leaves, but it is a major bummer when a slug finds the heads of your cauliflower.
I tried a ton of different kinds of kales. I found I really like the flavor and texture of lacinato the best, but your tastes may differ. Experiment!
Occasionally I will grow a few other brassicas — experimenting with overwintering broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. I really like cauliflower, and this Song cauliflower from Johnny’s has done particularly well for me when planted out late spring from starts.
When I have a lot of this cauliflower, I like to make and freeze a vegetable soup that I call “minestrone” into individual servings. I call it “minestrone” but it usually doesn’t have pasta in it, because I don’t like all the empty calories.
These Brussels sprouts are Darkmar, from Adaptive seeds. They are the most delicious brussel that I have had. They even have a slightly savoyed texture, which appeals to me.
Though I enjoy the occasional other brassica, kale is my jam. I have been using the exact same process for about 4 years now, with massive success each time.
My Kale growing process:
1. Start with quality seeds: I prefer a hybrid. I find them to grow much more food than open-pollinated varieties. More importantly, they grow fast enough to outwit cabbage root maggots and my horrible slug infestation (see pest notes below). They also shrug off my shadier conditions.
If you prefer to stick with open-pollinated seeds so you can save your own, check out the fabulous line that Adaptive Seeds has to offer. I personally have other things to do. I am totally ok with paying someone a few dollars to grow them for me. Approximately 30 plants of kale in particular are required for genetic diversity - using a ton of space to get to the seed stage - then you have to dry, and thresh seed. Nah. Too much fiddling.
The above meaty leaf you see is “Mamba” kale from Johnny’s. Apparently it is super popular with other growers too because it is almost always sold out.
Yes, the hybrid seed is more expensive by a couple of dollars. But I have found that every one of these seeds comes up beautifully - eliminating the need to plant 3 or 4 seeds into each hole and culling the weak ones. I would argue that planting one seed into each hole actually saves you money in the long run.
I’ve also had excellent luck with Black Jack kale as starts purchased from Portland Nursery. Looks like High Mowing Seeds has Black Jack and Mamba in stock at this time if you can’t find them elsewhere.
2. Start seeds indoors in early/mid-February-ish. My seed starting setup will be covered at a later time.
3. Start a backup planting a couple of weeks later. This is just in case a freak cold spell comes along and ruins your seedlings after you plant, or slugs happen to find all your plants. I’ve never had significant issues, but kale is important to me, so better safe than sorry.
4. Once your plants have a few sets of leaves, start giving dilute fertilizer (approx 1/4 strength). I personally find it easiest to use a small amount of miracle grow. This is because it is formulated correctly for seedlings and doesn’t make me want to puke like liquid fish fertilizer does. A small box lasts like - forever. Sometimes you can find it super cheap at garage sales. Easiest for me is to use an empty milk jug for mixing - start with a little warm water to get it to dissolve easily, then change to room temp.
If you want to go organic, fish fertilizer is what you’d use. But it isn’t complete - you’d need to add liquid kelp or something to it. I don’t know the details - but google can help you investigate how to use this correctly if you insist on the stinky stuff.
5. Plant your starts out when they are a few inches tall, approximately mid-March. The timing is important. A warm spell is best, a cold spell is the worst time to plant. Warmer temperatures will get your plant growing faster and outwit slug and cabbage root maggots (see pest issues below).
6. Encourage fast growth. Water them in with the liquid fertilizer, which you can use in a less dilute form when plants are not in the early seedling stage. Make sure you're not planting during a cold spell. Space them well, about 18” apart in beds with plenty of organic matter added. I started my veg beds with cow manure compost from Mt. Scott Fuel, but now I just top them off with whatever I have: coffee grounds from home or those graciously supplied by Starbucks, some compost, or possibly even chipped up blackberry vines. I don’t have any solid rules - I just use whatever I have on hand.
I’ve never had to fertilize my plants beyond the initial liquid fertilizer. According to Charles Dowding and Lee Reich, two gardeners from different parts of the world that I admire, vegetable plants really only need a top dressing of about 1” of compost every year anyway. Charles doesn’t use liquid fertilizer at all. I’ve had serious failures from plants not growing fast enough, so I stick to using it.
7. Harvest leaves from the bottom up by snapping leaves downward from the base. Once you’ve got several sets of leaves, you can start harvesting. You want to harvest from the bottom because slugs are attracted to deteriorating leaves, and then they will travel up higher into your plants.
The above tips should help set you up for success. Being aware of the pest issues and how to deal with them when they arise will help you deal with them when they inevitably do come along. Planting at the correct timing will help you avoid slugs and cabbage root maggots on your kales. But you will encounter other critters: deer, cabbage white butterflies, and aphids. They are all pretty simple to handle once you know what to do.
Pests of the brassica family that I have had significant issues with:
Slugs. Slugs are such a problem in the PNW that I’ve written a whole page about them which you can find here.
I combat slugs by:
-Starting seeds indoors, and setting out once they are a few inches tall. Slugs love young plants.
-Encouraging plants to grow fast.
-Plant more than I need: some slug loss is inevitable. About a dozen plants keeps me well supplied and I rarely lose a whole plant anyway.
-Scout the plants regularly - if I see any sign of slug damage I will come back at night for a game of “seek and destroy”, so the slugs don’t keep coming back.
-Harvest the bottom leaves first. Slugs go for leaves that are starting to deteriorate, then move up your plant.
-Stagger plantings. I start half a dozen plants in early February, followed by another a few weeks later to ensure success, although, I haven’t had major problems from plants set out in mid-March. I stagger to be on the safe side.
Deer. In my area, deer pressure is pretty minimal. Often they will come through my garden in late summer or early fall. If I see any signs of deer nibbles, I will come through and harvest what is there before the deer get it all. Preservation and cooking techniques will be covered at a later time.
Cabbage root maggots is a really bad problem on brassica crops. They are little flies that lay eggs at the base of your plants, which hatch into maggots that feet on the roots. You can tell you have root maggots if you see maggots in your raddishes or turnips, and also if your plants are inexplicably wilting despite adequate water when in the sun mid-day. I combat these pests by:
-Planting kale as early as possible and encouraging fast growth. Once the plant is sizabable, the maggots don’t cause any damage.
-The extension office recommends using a chunky mulch like woodchips to deter the flies. Steve Solomon recommends sawdust. Other gardeners recommended cardboard collars (which I would think make watering difficult). I’ve never needed protection on my early-planted kales, but with later stuff I’m still experimenting with what works best for me. Some years are worse than others.
-Some folks use row cover. I’m lazy and don’t want to fart around with it. Also my yard is shady and the row cover blocks a lot of light.
-If you do see evidence of cabbage maggot damage, it is easiest to pull the plant and plant something else. There’s nothing you can do to treat once they’ve found your plant.
Cabbage White Butterfly is another major pest. They are those rather pretty butterflies you see flitting around your garden. No matter what you do, you will have some CBW predation.
-When warm weather comes, so too come the butterflies. Scout plants regularly for tiny oblong off-white colored eggs laid on the underside of your leaves. Squish. Also look for caterpillars that are camouflaged as the same color as your leaves (because they are eating your leaves). They can be super tiny in the beginning of their lives.
-If they became too numerous to deal with, invest in a bottle of Bt (Baccilus Thuringiensis), which is a natural soil bacteria that is harmful to all caterpillar species but nothing else. Spray your plants. I find it easiest to do with just a spray bottle. Use a dab of dish soap to make the Bt stick to the leaves instead of rolling off.
Cabbage loopers other folks have issues with in our region, but I barely see them. Treat as for the butterflies.
Aphids are an occasional minor issue for me in late summer. They are a huge issue for other gardeners. I think that is because their gardens are sunnier than mine - aphids seem to prefer hot sun. When I do see aphids, I just use a blast of water from a hose. Once the September rains come, the problem disappears.
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I hope this helps you. Drop me a comment and let me know!