Green cabbage is a leafy cabbage that is particularly popular in northern Germany. Here we tell you how you can grow it yourself.
The ancient Romans already cultivated "palm cabbage", the original form of today's green cabbage. In Germany, kale was mentioned in late medieval writings. Today, kale is boiled and eaten with pinkel in northern Germany. In Westphalia, on the other hand, Kasseler and bacon are served as side dishes. But the palm cabbage also tastes delicious when prepared as a kale soup.
The great thing: The vegetables are not only tasty, they also convince with their nutritional values. It supplies the body, for example, with valuable dietary fiber and maintains intestinal he alth. This is exactly why we would like to explain to you here how you can grow kale yourself.
Where do kale grow best?
❍ Location:
The kale is known as an adaptable and undemanding plant. However, kale thrives best in full sun. It also tolerates partial shade, but this can have a negative effect on the growth of the plant.
Important:
Kale should only return to its original location after three years at the earliest. If the cabbage was infected with disease, it should take five years.
❍ Bottom:
The soil should be humus and rich in nutrients. You can expect the best yields in a calcareous clay soil. Sandy soil is also suitable as long as you regularly supply it with compost. You can also use cattle manure to improve the soil.
Tip:
In order to ensure optimal soil conditions, it is advisable to check the pH value of the soil. Appropriate test strips are commercially available for this purpose. If the value is between 6 and 7.5, the substrate is ideal for cultivating kale.
When preparing the soil, the soil must not only be thoroughly loosened and freed from weeds and roots, it is also important to use an organic slow-release fertiliser. Therefore, you should work plenty of compost into the soil. With average soil quality, you should plan about five liters of compost per square meter.
Which plants are suitable for aMixed culture?
A few considerations are advisable in advance, because kale is one of the heavy consumers. Tomatoes, for example, are suitable for mixed cultures, as they keep the cabbage plants pest-free. However, it is also advantageous to plant kale where beans or peas were cultivated in the previous year. These plants collect nitrogen, which improves soil quality and serves as fertilizer for the kale. If you are striving for the mixed culture, you should pay attention to good and bad bed neighbors.
Plants suitable for intercropping
Beans
Peas
Celery
Lettuce
Red Pray
plants unsuitable for intercropping
cabbage
onions
garlic
strawberries
How To Grow Kale
❍ Step 1 - Sow the kale:
Kale can be sown in seed trays outdoors. A germination temperature of just two degrees is sufficient. The ideal germination temperature is 20 degrees. You can start sowing as early as mid-April. To do this, fill the substrate in the seed box and spread the seeds.
Tip:
Alternatively, you can also sow kale directly into the bed after the ice saints. For this you should create seed grooves about two centimeters deep and 15 centimeters apart.
❍ Step 2 - Pick the kale:
When the first cotyledons appear, the plants are pricked out and placed at a temperature of around 14 degrees.
❍ Step 3 - Plant kale in the bed:
Planting in the bed takes place in mid-May, when no more ground frosts are to be expected. The distance should be 50 x 50 centimeters.
Tip:
If you don't want to grow kale yourself, you can get early seedlings from the gardener. The plants are then placed a little deeper in the ground than they originally were in the plant pot. As a preventive measure against clubroot, you can put some algae lime directly in the planting hole.
❍ Step 4 - Harvest kale:
You can harvest the first kale around November. In any case, wait for the first frost, because then the kale gets its typical taste. He's also a little cuter then.
Kale is generally frost hardy down to -15 degrees and can therefore be harvested for a long time.