Updated on January 6, 2025 by Ruth
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Kale, hailed as a superfood for its exceptional nutritional value, has found its way into your kitchen in various delightful dishes. Now, you’re ready to take the next step and grow your own. Congratulations! Cultivating kale can be a gratifying journey, offering a fresh, nutrient-rich addition to your meals straight from your garden. Here, we present ten essential tips on how to grow kale successfully.
- Choosing the Right Variety: There are several types of kale, including curly kale, Lacinato (or dinosaur) kale, and Russian kale. Choose a variety that suits your taste and growing conditions. Each variety has a different texture, flavor, and growing characteristics. One might be more heat tolerant and one is more cold hardy. One will have a more tender leaf, suitable for salads, and one is thicker and perfect for soups.
Some examples of our favorite varieties to grow:
Black Magic is a Lacinato type, also called dinosaur kale. It has long crinkly dark green leaves. It is tender, can be used in salads, and cooks quickly in stir fry. It is not as cold hardy as other varieties and suffers in the heat.
Red Russian kale has a leaf shaped similarly to a classic kale, but it is flatter and has purple veins. The leaves are quite tender and sweeter than most kale varieties. It can handle a light frost but not a freeze. While it is not happy with hot weather, this variety can get through the heat and then have a growth spurt in the fall.
Darkibor or Winterbor are the classic curly kale varieties. The leaves become very curly and are quite thick, best suited for cooking. This class of kale is very cold tolerant, holding its leaves over the winter. Whenever temperatures are above freezing, you can harvest in the winter. The plants will start growing again in the spring but will also go to seed as soon as it gets warm.
- Planting Time: Kale is a cool-season crop and can be planted in early spring or late summer for a fall harvest. It can tolerate light frost, making it a great crop for extending the growing season. Some kale varieties can stay in the garden all winter and survive to put on new growth in the spring. Other varieties will be able to handle summer heat so that your plants can grow from spring through fall.
If you get young kale plants in the spring from your local farm market or garden nursery, you can plant them about 6 weeks before the usual last frost date. If your spring last frost date is April 15, you can plant kale about March 1.
- Soil and Sun Requirements: Kale prefers well-drained, fertile soil with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. It also thrives in full sun but can tolerate partial shade. You will get the most production if your plants are in full sun, sunup to sundown.
If you want your plants to live over the summer, then planting them where they will get some afternoon shade is a plus. Trees that will drop their leaves in the fall then change that space to full sun for the cooler months.
- Planting and Spacing: Plant kale seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep and 12 to 18 inches apart. Thin seedlings to 8 to 12 inches apart once they are 2 to 3 inches tall. If your goal is to harvest the leaves when they are small, you can plant them closer together, 8-12 inches apart.
- Watering and Mulching: Keep the soil consistently moist, especially during dry periods. Kale handles hot weather much better when it has regular watering. Mulching around the plants can help retain soil moisture and suppress weeds.
Note “consistently” for watering. The soil can dry out in-between waterings, but the plants will need water each week, and several times a week during hot weather.
- Fertilizing: Kale is a heavy feeder and benefits from regular fertilization. Use a balanced fertilizer or amend the soil with compost before planting. If you plan to keep harvesting your kale for more than two months, add a side dressing of compost around the plant for an extra feed. Our preferred fertilizer is compost.
- Pest and Disease Management: Watch out for pests like aphids, cabbage worms, and flea beetles, which can damage kale plants. Use row covers or natural predators to manage pest populations. Diseases such as powdery mildew and clubroot can also affect kale, so practice crop rotation and maintain good garden hygiene.
If you have one or two plants, keep an eye out for early signs of insects, particularly on the underside of the leaves. You can wipe off any eggs with a damp paper towel. You can spray a liquid soap solution (10% liquid soap, 90% water) on the leaves which will dispose of any bugs or eggs.
Be sure to plant the kale in a different spot in the garden each year. Bugs that are specific to kale can overwinter in the ground, so you do not want to feed them in the spring. Have a different type of plant in that spot, such as lettuce or tomatoes or eggplant.
- Growing kale in pots. You can grow kale in containers. You want to find the largest possible container, as the plant will only grow as large as the container permits. You want to have a pot as least 1-gallon in size, although the larger the better. A 5-gallon bucket for growing kale is ideal. Make sure the container has drainage holes so that the soil does not become water logged. You need to have a good bedding mix for soil, as that will compost in the soil. Water consistently. In hot weather you may need to water daily.
One of the benefits of container gardening is that you can move the container as needed. Have your kale in full sun in the spring and fall and move it to a spot with afternoon shade if you have hot summers.
- Harvesting: You can start harvesting kale leaves when they are young and tender, usually around 8 to 10 inches tall. Harvest by cutting the outer leaves, leaving the inner leaves to continue growing. Regular harvesting encourages new growth and prolongs the harvest season. Eventually, the plant stem will thicken while it continues to grow, and you will be able to see where you have harvested the prior outer stems. The kale plants can wind up 2-3 feet tall.
As long as you leave 2-3 of the inner baby leaves, the plant will continue to grow more leaves. We have even cut the entire head off old stalks and then new leaves grow at the nodules where the previous leaves had been harvested. It’s hard to harvest too much from the kale plants.
Cool weather helps kale taste a little sweeter than usual.
- Storage and Use: Store kale in the refrigerator for up to a week. The leaves need to be dry before being placed in the refrigerator. Unless the leaves have visible dirt on them, it is best to wait to wash them right before using. You can use kale in salads, smoothies, soups, stews, and sautés, making it a versatile and nutritious addition to your diet.
As with all vegetables, you will have the best flavor and most nutrition if you prepare and consume your kale right after harvesting. After all, that’s the whole point of growing something yourself, being able to enjoy farm to table goodness at home.
Where can you find kale plants
With the rise in popularity of kale, plants are much easier to find than they used to be. Farm markets that carry spring vegetable starts will have them. Many garden centers now carry vegetable plants as well, so that is another possibility. Consider getting a packet of seeds and starting them yourself. Remember, you do not have to start all of the seeds at once. You can then have a spring planting and a fall planting.
Conclusion
Kale is fun to grow and a relatively easy plant to cultivate. When you can go right from your garden to the kitchen, you experience a fantastic freshness that cannot be beat.
If you are close to our farm near Wilmington, Delaware, please come visit! We grow kale in all four seasons and the farm market is open all year. If you are not near, please find a farm near you and support their growing. Thank you for your interest in sustainable agriculture!
Happy growing and happy eating!
Additional resources
- https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/kale/?start=12&sz=12
- https://gardenerspath.com/how-to/disease-and-pests/kill-kale-pests-naturally/
- https://greenthumb.samcart.com/products/vegetables-containers/
