Plant Spotlight: Ornamental Kale

Posted by Chris Field
September 21st, 2009
Filed in Plant Profiles
Tags: greens, Kale, vegetables

Kale is both a great ornamental annual and a tasty, healthy vegetable. As part of the Cole family (along with cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts), Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat. Kale can be grown in the late fall or late spring. Now is a perfect time to sow kale for an early December harvest!

Here’s a tip from the pros to keep your Kale transplants in top shape after you plant them in the garden:
Always wait to plant Kale in the garden when the plants have at least four sets of leaves. Strip off the lower two sets of leaves and plant it deep in the ground, up to the remaining two sets of leaves. Most plants do not like to be planted deep. Kale (and tomatoes) are exceptions.

Kale does best in soil that is neutral in pH, had lots of organic matter and is in full sun.

Kale Cuttings from Outdoor Plants

You can continue to harvest fresh herbs and have windowsill blooms from your plants well into the winter, if you take cuttings now before a frost kills the tender plants. Mint, basil and geraniums, in particular, are easy to propagate from cuttings. Here’s how to do it:

• Take cuttings that are about four inches long from the plant. Try to cut from a stem that has at least four sets of leaves.
• Strip off the lower two sets of leaves and place the cutting in water.
• The cutting will eventually root.
• After roots are a few inches long, pot the plant into lightweight potting soil.
• Enjoy!

You can also root cuttings in perlite or soil, if you dip the lower part of the stem in root-tone or rooting hormone.

Try not to take cuttings that have flowers on them, as those sections of plant are in reproductive mode, not vegetative growth mode.

• Buy Ornamental Kale seeds at Amazon.com