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Kale
Eila
Posts: 63
in Fruit & veg
Hi i am thinking of trying to grow some kale this year can anyone recommend a good variety please ?
I am in north Manchester Thanks,
0
Posts
I grew the dark green very curly type the year before last, and fed half the neighbourhood with it, it was great. I think it was called "Darkibor".
It got to about 3 1/2 feet high.
Last year I tried four different kinds, all near each other in the raised bed, and none of them did well!
We had a wet spring last year, the year before was a drought, so who knows.
Last year I grew Red Ursa Kale from Real Seeds. I'm still picking it. It didn't grow during mid-Winter, but it's growing very well now. It's really nice, very tender, much nicer than the bought stuff.
Thank you i will check them out.
We planted Reflex F1 Hybrid from T&M in Spring last year. We had 4 plants initially, but they were too prolific, so we took two out. The remaining two survived all Winter and were just beginning to grow again recently, although we have now composted them in favour of starting off some new seedlings. It was the first time we grew Kale. I'd highly recommend that variety.
I agree philippa - I grow two sort of cavolo nero, 'black magic' which has a wider flatter leaf and 'di toscana' which is the traditional Italian one. It produces through summer and autumn and on into winter. By the time it starts bolting the 'red ursa' or 'pentland' types are getting going in the early spring. There's also a couple of perennial types - 'daubentons' for one - which you can pick in the gap between the red ursa bolting and the cavolo nero getting into full swing
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I love cavolo nero and pay £1.50 for a few leaves at the supermaket.
So this year I bought some seed - nero di toscana
I'm growing 2 plants/month and started in march, so I've got a few in pots ready to go out when they've hardened off. I'll sow the rest outside now spring is here, but the ground is just bone dry still.
Where are the April showers???? It's so incredibly dry here, not a drop of rain in a month and almost none over autumn or winter
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Wow i didn't know there were so many varieties of Kale.
I have ordered Red Ursa Russian and True Siberian from Real seeds
Great website with lots of info, thanks Leif2
Also ordered pea Havel
Just hope the pesky MOLES don't come back in my plot!
No problem with dry soil here !