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Help identifying this kale plant?
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Posted by
emcd124 5 (
My Page) on
Thu, Oct 25, 12 at 7:35
| I have a variety of kale that I obtained from a friend in Nashville, who got it a few years ago from a farmer for Earth Day. We dont know the official varietal name, but its a great, robust, productive, kale, and it tolerates both cold and heat with grace, even germinating pretty well in the heat of last july for a fall crop. So I'd like to know what it is so that if I swap it with others they can have a point of reference.
I'm including two pictures. I've tried searching online and the only ones I've been able to find that look like my leaves are Madeley kale or thousand head kale. The leaves are thick but fairly tender. It makes great kale chips but also works well in kale smoothies. It has a somewhat sprawling habit if not closed in by plantings around it (rather than tightly vertical) as you can see below. Any one recognize it or have any suggestions for how I could go about IDing it?
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| I vote for a Georgia type collards, which I think are better than kale anyway, though I grow both. Same species. |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| 3rd vote collards, I just made some soup with some of mine and am enjoying it right now! |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| Yes. Collards. Very hardy, tastes even better after it freezes a few times. |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| Looks like a Collard to me. |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| Really? I thought collards were round and didn't have the sections in their leaves. Could this be a cross between kale and collards? At any rate, it sounds great and your description of it makes it sound like it would be quite a coveted swap item. |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| One more for collards. But unlike planatus, I prefer growing Kale -- All bitter greens need help in the flavor dept IMHO -- They're bitter! SO Kale tastes just like collards to me, especially after I "help" them in the kitchen. The reason why I prefer to GROW kale is that I don't have to remove the woody stem from MOST of the harvested leaves and they're a lot more slower to bolt. I can leave my Kale growing for well over a year. Either way-- nice looking plants EMCD. Kevin |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| I guess being in Zone 10, you wouldn't get many frosts or anything like that. In the lower zones, they get frosts and so they don't get bitter. |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| stuffradio: Where I'm at(about 20 miles from coast), we get a few frosty nights per year and they don't seem to "sweeten" up my greens. From what I understand, frosts just take away "some" bitterness. There's a reason why they're called BITTER greens...they're bitter. There's also a reason why almost every recipe for collard greens calls for a tad of sugar...to balance out the bitter. Kevin |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| Hey Kevin -- I've had kale plants growing for going on 5 years now -- still producing! Those old plants produce tender leaves year round, and if they want to bolt I just let them. They are much healthier than my newer plants -- and the stalks are becoming like small trees now. The bugs completely leave them alone -- I figure it's because they're so healthy with deep root system. I rotate the bed around them -- garlic one year, then peas, etc, and those kale plants just keep on keeping on. |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| Elisa: Yep. Kale always just keeps on trucking along for me. Though I don't let them go any longer than the point they start to peter out on me. I rotate my crops with limited space AND I rototill. They would just get in the way. I just start 2-3 plants each late summer and they supply me enough all year long. No problems in zone5 and freezing? Kevin |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| The varieties that last through our rough winters are Beedy's Camden and Winterbor -- both from Fedco, and both survived their overwinter trials uncovered (in Maine). I sometimes leave them uncovered and sometimes do a half hearted covering job on these plants -- with some agricultural fleece, but generally our coldest temps come when there is enough snow to cover them anyway. Red Russian kale does not last year to year, and neither does scotch curled. I'm doing no till, so that makes it easy. I can just imagine a roto-tilled plot with three kale plant in the middle :) |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| Woohooman, that's not my experience though. The colder temps and frosts release the sugars in the plant, and it's not bitter. Maybe it's just the varieties you're growing though, I don't know. I'm just saying that's not what happens for me. They are bitter during the Summer, and Summer heat, and as the fall comes and goes, Kale is not bitter. I have never added sugar to my Kale. I'm not attacking you, just saying what has happened in my case. |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| I think they'll change leaf shape after a good somewhat hard frost if they are a kale. Mine usually do. they go from looking like collards like yours do to having filly curly edged leaves like you might find lining a salad bar. The collards keep on with typical collard shaped flat leaves. As for sweetness, my kale is always milder than collards, but I'd never add sugar to any greens. I like spraying them with vinegar after a quick sautee in a little bacon fat. |
RE: Help identifying this kale plant?
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| Those leaves are shaped more like broc and cauli than they are collard. Same color as all three. Obviously it isn't either of the first two, but likely is in the Oleracea group. Pretty interesting. |
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