Crop Guide – Kale
Common Name Kale
Scientific Name Brassica oleracea
Uses Edible; salads, smoothies, chips, soups, microgreens
Crop Timeline
- Transplants: Start seeds 6 weeks before transplanting (Video: Sowing Kale Seeds)
- Spring Planting: February 15-April 1
- Fall Planting: September 15-October 15
- Microgreens: Direct sow 2 weeks before consumption
Planting tips
- Fertilizer: Apply a complete fertilizer
- Number of plants per square foot: 2
- Growing structures: None
- Frost protection: None
Harvest
- Harvest 60 days from sowing, when leaves are about the size of an adult palm or a child’s hand.
- Only harvest lower leaves (discard yellow or bug-eaten leaves)
- Cut or break where leaf attaches to stem
- Leave at least 5 larger leaves to support further growth
- Never remove small, centermost leaves where new leaves will emerge
Pests
- Cabbage worm/looper
- Description: Green, inch-worm, often found on leaf underside, along stem or leaf veins
- Treatment: Bt pesticide application or mechanical removal (pick them off and squish them; or put them in a jar if averse to squishing)
- Aphids
- Description: fat, dark-colored caterpillar, active at night, hiding during the day in soil near base of plant; severs leaf and/stem
- Treatment: Squirt them off using a high pressure spray from the garden hose.