... growing and hybridizing all kinds of plants in zone 6b Maryland since the 1980's.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Glossy Kale Update

Spring 2010, I started a batch of glossy kale in the basement. These are derived from intercrossings of ‘Scotch Blue Curled’ kale, ‘Green Glaze’ collards, and a purple leaf ornamental kale-cabbage. I selected six or seven of the nicest seedlings from this batch to plant out in the garden. They endured three months of nearly no rain – with only a rare visit with the watering can. They went into the winter looking pretty good. Well, this past winter was unusually cold for us too, so these kales got freeze blasted back nearly to the ground. This Spring (2011), they resprouted from the base of the frozen trunks and flowered. I planned on saving the seed and replanting that area of the garden to something different. Well, it looks like I might have to wait a little longer because several of these glossy kales are regenerating new growth from below the seed stalks. The images show the best plant of these glossy kales:
first image, as it looked when I went out to harvest the seeds - crowded by weeds;
second image, the harvest of pods;
and the third image, the cleaned up plant after seed pods and surrounding weeds had been removed.
It’ll be fun to see just how perennial this seedling might turn out to be.










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