I've done the kale, collards and mustards. They are still growing in the garden (slowly). They are the first to come up and they seem to love the cold. I would sow these much later because the come up quickly.

I've had good luck wintersowing them, but a bit later than now. I sowed the kale, collards and lettuce in late February and mustard in March. All were transplanted into the garden in April.

Be sure to give the Mustard its own dedicated bed, preferably isolated by lawn or pathways. You'll never have to sow it again. It's the most reliable edible self-sower I grow. I have several varieties in a 6' diameter bed, and it's been producing for 6 years, with no further seeding required.

barbe,

Lettuce seedlings are so delicate, when you transplanted them, how big they are were?

I let them get 2 to 4 true leaves. Then I break apart the soil very carefully so as not to damage the roots. I do the "hunk of seedlings" method (breaking off a chunk of soil and seedlings and planting the whole chunk). Then after they've had a few days to establish, I use scissors to cut off all but the healthiest. Needless to say, it's a bit wasteful, but it's easy, early and works for me. I always have plenty of lettuce seeds. lol. For kale and collards as well as the other cole crops, I plant each seed individually in a paper pot in milk jugs. One jug holds 12 of the newspaper pots I make. Then it's easy to pull the pots apart and plant them when I'm ready. Lettuce could probably be done the same way, but I haven't tried it.

I let them get 2 to 4 true leaves. Then I break apart the soil very carefully so as not to damage the roots. I do the "hunk of seedlings" method (breaking off a chunk of soil and seedlings and planting the whole chunk). Then after they've had a few days to establish, I use scissors to cut off all but the healthiest. Needless to say, it's a bit wasteful, but it's easy, early and works for me. I always have plenty of lettuce seeds. lol. For kale and collards as well as the other cole crops, I plant each seed individually in a paper pot in milk jugs. One jug holds 12 of the newspaper pots I make. Then it's easy to pull the pots apart and plant them when I'm ready. Lettuce could probably be done the same way, but I haven't tried it.

I let them get 2 to 4 true leaves. Then I break apart the soil very carefully so as not to damage the roots. I do the "hunk of seedlings" method (breaking off a chunk of soil and seedlings and planting the whole chunk). Then after they've had a few days to establish, I use scissors to cut off all but the healthiest. Needless to say, it's a bit wasteful, but it's easy, early and works for me. I always have plenty of lettuce seeds. lol. For kale and collards as well as the other cole crops, I plant each seed individually in a paper pot in milk jugs. One jug holds 12 of the newspaper pots I make. Then it's easy to pull the pots apart and plant them when I'm ready. Lettuce could probably be done the same way, but I haven't tried it.

Sorry about the multiple entries. I kept getting rejection notices and like an idiot kept trying. Now I'm getting rejection notices on this apology, but I'm trying to check each time to see if it "took".

While we are on leafy green vegetables, do you know if you can collect seeds from Lettuce, kale, collard, bok choy? Barbe, mentioned you have lots of lettuce seeds and I thought you may be collecting seeds from your own lettuce and didn't know how.

No, I don't attempt to collect seeds from vegetable plants except beans and peas. As a rule I pull the plants out as soon as they show signs of going to seed in order to plant something else in their place. It's just that the lettuce seed packets are so full I can't use them all if I only plant one to a paper pot so I do it the easy way.

Lettuce comes true from seed and the seed is easy to collect. You won't need more than one plant of each variety to go to seed as they make THOUSANDS of seeds each. I find they come true and the quality does not deteriorate over the generations.

Hepatica

This is such a great thread!I let my lettuce go to seed in the lettuce bed and I'm hoping to see what happens. I won't do a true wintersow for the lettuce but I will toss seeds into the bed come april or so if the seeds don't overwinter.

heptica,

that's good info. I'm wondering whether you could do the same with other green leafy vegetables. This will be my first year of sowing so I don't even know whether kale, collard, chard would go to seed if you let it bolt.