Kale "Halbhoher Grüner Krauser"

Here´s what´s ahead:

• Getting Started

• Sowing

• Transplanting

• Location

• Care

• Harvest & Storage

• Enjoy

Getting Started

The hype about kale as a local superfood has certainly not passed you by. Even if you don't feel like using its green leaves for a superfood smoothie, you should still grow it in your garden. Even steamed, boiled or baked into chips, it still contains many vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The best thing is that you can even leave it in your vegetable bed in winter and harvest a few fresh leaves in the cold season. The sowing season starts in May and lasts until July.

The most important information at a glance: 

• Seed depth: 0.5 - 1 cm  

• Germination temperature: 15 - 20 °C 

• Germination period: 5 - 8 days 

• Location: partial shade

• Sowing indoors: May - June

• Relocate outdoors: June - July

• Direct sowing outdoors: June - July

• Final planting distance: 40 cm 

• Root depth: 40 cm 

• Nutrient requirements: high

Sowing

Sowing indoors:

• Sowing in trays increases the germination rate. The small plants are then quickly transplanted into the bed.

• Fill a seed tray with soil.

• Press holes into the soil with your finger at a distance of 2 cm (depth 0.5 - 1 cm).

• Tear your seed paper into smaller pieces with one seed each and spread the pieces in the holes.

• Cover the holes with soil, water the seeds well and keep them moist until germination.

• You can place the tray indoors on the windowsill or outside in a sheltered, warm place. Too much sunlight can damage the seedlings. 

Direct sowing outdoors:

• Prepare the bed with compost 2 weeks before sowing.

• Make grooves 0.5 - 1 cm deep in the soil at a distance of 40 cm.

• Tear your seed paper into pieces with one seed each.

• Place the pieces in the grooves at a distance of 40 cm, close them and water the seeds well. To avoid gaps, you can also sow the seeds closer together and separate them later. 

• Keep the soil evenly moist until germination.

Transplanting

• When your kale has grown a few centimetres and formed the first real kale leaves, you can transplant it into the bed.

• Clear the bed of weeds and work in some compost.

• Carefully lift the seedlings out of the seed tray or out of the soil with a pricking stick or spoon handle.

• Dig holes in the soil at a distance of 40 cm that are deep enough to hold the roots of the seedlings.

• Place the seedlings in the holes, close them and press the soil down a little. Do not forget to water! 

• If you have directly sown your kale in your vegetable bed, only separate them if the seedlings have grown to close together. They should have a distance of 40 cm between each other.

Location

• Partial shade

• Humus-rich soil

• Choose a location where no cruciferous plants (e.g. cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, radish, radish, rocket) have grown in the last 3 years, otherwise diseases and pests will spread easily.

• Good neighbours: aubergine, dill, pea, cucumber, leek, chard, pepper, peppermint, radish, beetroot, celery, spinach, tomato.

• Bad neighbours: broccoli and other cabbage varieties, garlic, potato, onion

Care

• Water regularly, avoid waterlogging 

• Fertilise regularly (compost, organic fertiliser, no animal manure) 

• Cover young plants with a fine-meshed protective net to prevent white cabbage butterflies from laying their eggs. 

Diseases and pests 

• Cabbage hernia: Dispose of infested plants in the household waste and do not grow cabbage in the same bed for the next 6 years.

• Earth fleas, cabbage aphids, cabbage moths, cabbage flies, cabbage owls, cabbage white butterflies: as a preventive measure, install protection nets. 

• Check leaves early for eggs of white cabbage butterflies, cabbage moths and cabbage owls and crush them, collect caterpillars. 

• Grow tomatoes, celery or thyme between the cabbage plants: The smell distracts the white cabbage butterfly from the cabbage leaves.

Harvest & Storage

• Harvest individual leaves from late autumn into winter; harvest outer leaves first, then new ones can grow from the inside. 

• The taste improves in cold weather and the leaves become sweeter. If the frost is very strong, it is better to harvest.

• In February and March, the cabbage sprouts again before it starts to flower in spring.

• The leaves can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

• To freeze, cut into pieces and blanch.

Enjoy

• Young leaves can be used raw in a salad, for example with tangerines and walnuts

• For larger leaves, use a knife to remove the fine parts of the leaves from the stalk. The stalk - if it is not too woody - is then added to the dish first, before the finely chopped leaves follow.

• Kale goes well with all kinds of hearty dishes such as stews or fried potatoes.

• If you fancy a healthy snack, you can deep-fry the leaves in oil and enjoy them as chips.