Eternal Kale, Collards, and Chicory

In a previous post, Our Boreal Garden, I mentioned the transplanting of kale rootstock. Kale and collard greens that have been overwintered either in our garden or replanted from the root cellar can be expected to bring forth new growth in the very early spring. One of the advantages of this compared to direct seeding is that one should be able to achieve much larger leaf growth early on as the roots have already been developed and most of the plants energy is directed towards leafing out and going to seed. We usually have a good one or two months in which we are able to harvest the leaves before warm temperatures cause the plants to bolt.


For us, this procedure works one of two ways. In the spring we can plant kale and collards for large winter greens and the plants are normally harvested all the way into January at which time the cold (in our area) often forces the plant into a period of dormancy. We also plant these same greens in the early fall and are usually able harvest the much smaller, less mature plants throughout the winter months as they often retain thier leaves. The smaller kale tend to bolt much more quickly in the spring. Either way they both provide for us much sooner then any plants that have been directly seeded into the cold spring garden.

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The above also applies to the various forms of chicory we grow in our gardens.