Split Kohlrabi ?

[zzammon]

Went to the garden and half of the Kohlrabi are split open. What causes this? How to prevent it? And, are some variety more prone to split than others?

My only thought is that will all the rain we've had lately they are sucking up more water than they can handle.

[Steve Foss]

Probably the same thing that causes tomatoes and radishes to split. Usually the veggies have gotten too dry and then got a liberal watering, and the growth spurt from the watering split the skin. Even moisture makes for even growth and intact skins.

[zzammon]

I knew you'd have some input Steve, thanks. I was figuring water was involved, but the rain has been quite regular around here, although a lot. Plus I did keep them watered during the one dry spell. Still, I will keep that under advisement.

Do you know of any variety which are less prone than others? I know you like Kossack, are they tougher?

[Steve Foss]

I can honestly say I've never had a kohlrabi of any variety split on me. I do get some split radishes. As well as dry/wet cycles, radishes and carrots and other root crops can split if they hit a clump of hard dirt, a small stone or piece of wood.

If your kohlrabi split even though they were evenly watered and didn't suffer any dry/slowdown followed by wet/speedup, then I don't know what might cause it.

Have you harvested any of them? How are they regarding pithiness, sweetness and such? Lots of pith across the split zones or OK?

I just pulled my first couple of them last week. They are a mystery variety sold by a local nursery that planted them and didn't have records about what kind of seed it was. About the size of a granny smith apple, and very sweet. My Kossacks were planted from seed and late (early June), so they have not got any heads yet.

[zzammon]

They are about baseball size and I have been enjoying them. Very soft flesh with somewhat thin skins. Maybe that is as good as this vieriety is good for?

[zzammon]

Oh, I should add, that last year I had a different variety, purple something, as you may recall from out our pevious discusions, and had a few split too. I see you are in Ely, so maybe my Mankato heat is part of the problem?

[blue_healer_guy]

with my little garden knowledge i would say that if something is splitting, your a day or two past prime.

[Steve Foss]

with my little garden knowledge i would say that if something is splitting, your a day or two past prime.

Definitely possible. Baseball sized is pretty big for most kohlrabi varieties. But if they are still sweet and not pithy at that size, a little splitting probably isn't any big deal.