Dwarf Siberian Kale

I would say that the dominating characteristic of this kale is how unbelievably prickly it is. The first time I grabbed it, I thought I had grabbed a thistle growing too close on accident. Turns out, there were no thistles, it was just this kale. This is a great seed stock, great germination, took off way faster than my other kales, and seemed to thrive in our heatwave when the others simply stopped growing, BUT I give it three stars overall simply because nowhere in the description do they warn you about this very prickly characteristic. I've decided that this kale is just not for fresh eating, so if you get this one, make sure you get some other kales you're more familiar with for your "massaged" kale salad recipes...otherwise, ouch! :) This is a good kale, it just shouldn't be your only one. I'm experimenting with freezing it and cooking...maybe it can do well as chips, but wear gloves when handling if you have very sensitive skin.

This variety didn’t produce well for me in South Carolina. I will be going back blue curled scotch kale which has done very well for me in the past.

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.