Overwintered Kale

[smurfy]

So it's a seed packet? And thanks!!

[roony]

Yup. De nada

[Dotch]

Back to the overwintering kale: Looks like mine is going to bolt which I thought they might do. I may keep a few to see but probably don't need a whole patch of them to figure it out...lol

[delcecchi]

Is kale a brassica, the cabbage family?  I think they (brassicas) are biennials and go to seed right away the second year.

[Dotch]

Yup, kale is a cruciferous vegetable in the brassica family which is why I'm not surprised. Overwintering apparently vernalized it, much the same as it does things like rye or winter wheat. It did surprise me it survived winter period. Not all brassicas are biennials though. Mustard and rapeseed are typically both annuals. Some of the weeds such as bog yellowcress behave as annuals or biennials to short lived perennials in this latitude anyway. Your brassica lesson for today boys and girls... 

[roony]

Mine is rebellious, it is not bolting.

[delcecchi]

I love me some science...

[roony]

Overwintering didn't seem to vernalize my variety of Kale. If it was a tomatoe I could tell you what variety it was and the history of that variety. All I know about this is its Kale, might be Russian Kale. Does not appear to me to be bolting at all. 

[Dotch]

I don't see any of the little telltale buds on yours so you're probably golden. The stuff we have/had is a flowering variety of some sort hence my rationale for not eating it. That and I probably sprayed it with "deadly agro-toxins" at some point.    If I was really ambitious I could probably find one of the tags I tilled under earlier and know the answer to the varietal question. Maybe while I'm grilling some yardbird and having an adult beverage after a bit. Oh wait, I hear one calling me now...

[roony]

Well, I spoke too soon. My Kale is just starting to bolt now.

[Dotch]

I purposely knocked all but one of the remaining specimens out here with the tiller Sunday. I wondered why they hadn't flowered yet. The bunnies have been chewing the flowers off before they bloom. No sense in attracting any more of them than I already have!