Showing posts with label Cavola Nero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cavola Nero. Show all posts

Friday 14 August 2015

How to grow kale.

How to grow kale
'Cavola Nero' or Black Tuscan kale (from Seeds of Italy)

Rather like a miniature palm in structure with a radiating ruff of dark-green, linear leaves, its common name (palm cabbage) is apt.
The mildly flavoured leaves are delicious eaten steamed or boiled with butter and it can be picked earlier than others - often in early autumn.
Like all brassicas the leaves taste better after a frost.
How to grow kale
All brassicas want to grow for you but kale, like all the others, prefer fertile, well-drained soil.
Seeds can be sown in drills, in modules or in trays in spring - usually late March.
I prefer modules because they make individual plants which are easy to handle and quick to grow away.
Plant out the young plants by mid summer (50 cm/ 20 in apart in rows 75 cm/ 30 in apart) and they should soon become statuesque.
Net them as soon as you’ve planted them to keep away cabbage white and small white butterflies - using 4 ft high canes topped with small pots to support the small gauge netting.
If their leaves touch the net the butterflies still lay their eggs - so aim for a tantalising gap.
If your allotment has heavy soil build a simple raised bed by mounding up the soil to a foot high, or nine inches (20 -30 cm).