Discussion Board

I have 8 Kale plants and want to start harvesting, but not the whole plant. I want to take leaves and let the plant keep growing. Now...do I cut of the top to make the plant spread or do I keep taking leaves from the bottom up...my concern with this is, that it the plant will grow so tall, it will fall over.
What a gardener I am

Harvest the outer leaves, from the bottom, taking as much of the stem as you can without damaging the rest of the plant. The younger leaves will grow from the center of the plant. Eventually, the plant will bolt, a response to either day length, heat, or both. This means that instead of making edible leaves, it will send up its floral stalk in an attempt to complete its life cycle. At this point you should just pull it out and add it to the compost heap, as the leaves will get nasty tasting. Kale is a cool weather crop, you might want to plan to plant a fall crop to mature in the cooler times before winter. It is my understanding that frosted kale is supposed to be quite good, I remember seeing it in North Carolina when we were there. Me, I dislike it immensely, so I never tried the frosted stuff.

You might want to join the gardening forum.

Thanks for the info and the gardening forum sounds great!

It gets much sweeter after a frost! And if you are quick and spot the first sign of it bolting (shoot coming out the top) and nip the top off, you can sometimes get a bit more milage/harvest out of the plant.

I harvest the florets as well. I just pulled up the kale plant from last summer. Harvested leaves all winter and spring from the plant. I prefer the dinasour kale myself.

Greens often get bitter once they bolt. If it doesn't get too hot too fast, try pinching off the flowering stem to prolong the growth of greens without the flowering, as someone else said.

You can pot up a couple and take them into the house to a sunny location if you want to try to keep them growing into the hot part of the summer.

Hot summer, lol.....I wish....the most we are getting here is around 25- 28 C and that only lasts a couple of days....
But great idea with pinching of the flowering part as soon as it shows...I do that with my chives....why didn't I think of this

I grew both kale and collards this past winter/spring. The kale had too many nooks and crannies for bugs to live while the collard leaves were gloriously healthy, very smooth and much, much cleaner. I'm going to try growing collards over the summer - they are supposed to do fine with enough water. We don't often get hot here.

I grew lots of kale and dried many of the leaves in the dehydrator. Washed the fresh leaves, ran them through a slicing blade (food processor) and then dried them. When dry, crushed the brittle leaves into tiny bits and put them in a jar. Great stuff to sprinkle on so many things, including salads. Easy, convenient, and I don't even notice the taste. I put some in morning oatmeal... No problem.