Dwarf Siberian Kale

This is a lovely kale but I'd say FAR from dwarf! We started these in our basement nursery, moved to green house and then the took off in our raised beds. They are giant and tasty! Our neighbors liked it as well.

Well, I am not sure how to start this without gushing over how well these do in our 6b climate in Northern Nevada. First, I started in a raised bed with two 4' rows that are 6" apart after reading that the more mature leaves aren't as delicious as the younger ones. So, I put the seeds in the ground the second week of March. I had almost 100% germination within 5 days then a week after that 3" of snow that I thought would knock them dead. I was wrong and they continued to grow and produce leaves. This is my review after thinning them out for the third time this season to 6" apart. My harvest to date has been 1 1/4 paper grocery bags full of delicious medium sized Kale leaves. I recommend these over any other kale varieties. They are too darn easy to propagate.

First time kale grower in a temperature controlled hydroponic greenhouse. The plants had an excellent germination rate, took a little while to get going, but then grew pretty fast. I started them in late Oct (zone 6b) and am still harvesting weekly (mid-April). The biggest surprise was when the heating system broke mid-winter and the entire row of plants and growing medium froze. I thought they were done for and pretty much abandoned the greenhouse. Came back a week later (empty reservoirs) and they were ok! Got the greenhouse up and running again and they bounced back even better than before! One note: since they were practically not harvested at all during the earlier stages, my plants are anything but dwarf averaging about 30" tall.

I really love this Kale. I planted in the spring and did not get any plants. I thought the seeds rotted and forgot about them. 6 months later I stumbled upon multiple Kale plants growing in my garden. The seeds just waited for the cooler weather to germinate. From December to now Feb 13. I have been enjoying nice full great tasting kale plants. I cut off a stem or two a day for green smoothies and it just seems to keep on growing and replenishing itself.

My favorite plant from Baker Creek! At first, I didn't like the flavor, but then got used to it and found that tender young baby leaves are much better than big rubbery leaves. I recommend planting a long row for each person you intend to feed, since you're only going to be harvesting one baby leaf (or possibly two on occasion) from each plant, each time you go to make a meal. Mixing it with some mild lettuce leaves in a salad makes it delicious. Seems to be a C4 photosynthesizer. When I fail to water, it simply slows down instead of dying. It could easily out compete against grass and weeds. Big, rubbery adult leaves seem to be strong enough to survive through frost, and could even help provide some frost protection to nearby plants under those big leaves. Hardy, nutritious, easy to grow, what an awesome plant! The only downside: this plant does not grow very well under CFL's indoors. Needs real sunshine. Adult leaves never stop growing in size, also making it poor for indoors.