- A huge thank you to Four Sigmatic
for sponsoring today's video.
(calming guitar music)
Hello and a very warm welcome back to the garden.
Today I've got a ton of kale to transplant.
They're gonna be succession planted
after the previous crops of this year.
And I thought it would be the perfect opportunity
to show you
how to become self-sufficient in kale year round.
(water flows)
So this here's my brassica seed bed
where I'm starting off everything from
purple sprouting broccoli to Brussels sprouts to cabbage
and also to kale
in fact I've got seven different varieties of kale.
Now I like to start brassicas off in a seed bed
especially kale because if I start them off in module,
say in a polytunnel,
they're gonna take up so much space
because I grow so many brassicas.
To sow brassicas
that you're then gonna lift up and transplant,
I've got rows about 15 to 20 centimeters apart.
And for all brassicas,
I sow them around one and a half to two centimeters deep.
So just under an inch so you just make a simple line,
like a normal trell
and then you transplant the seeds quite thickly,
maybe one seed every two or three millimeters.
And then they're just going to grow up like this.
You're gonna grow up tall.
The most important thing though,
is to make sure when they are small seedlings,
keep them really nicely watered.
And now it's time for me to come in with a fork
I'm very gently gonna go around
and I'm gonna find whatever variety I want to transplant.
So this is going to be some cottagers kale,
and I'm gonna lift this,
pop it in this bucket of water,
and then start transplanting them
in places where I've already had a crop or harvest this year
is a perfect opportunity to then succession plant
with most of your brassicas
and kale is one of the best for that.
We all know that kale is a bit of a superfood.
I've got red Russian kale growing here.
And the main reason why we grow kale is for the leaves.
And it's super productive especially over winter.
You just take a little and often harvesting approach.
And I'm at a very welcome green
during some dark cold wet months.
Now on top of obviously having the big leaves,
you can also treat kale like a micro green,
and I grow them really thickly together
and then harvest the smaller leaves.
But my absolute favorite harvest that you get from kale
is actually from the flower stems.
So during the hungry gap,
when there really isn't much available,
kale will run to seed
it's then gonna send out a load of flower shoots.
And just before they break bud you harvest them,
treat them a bit like purple sprouting broccoli,
and they are absolutely delicious.
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Now in general the sowing times for kale is around
March to early June
and then the harvesting is there any time from July
all the way through to March and potentially even April.
And here I've got this cottagers kale
that I'm actually gonna start transplanting
here in this bed.
And I'm doing a bit of an experiment.
I'm gonna grow all seven varieties of kale here,
just to see which one I think in my opinion
performs the best.
Cause I'm always looking for the hearty varieties
to really make sure that they go
and last all the way through winter.
Now if you do want one that I know
will always give good results,
then that's going to be the dwarf green curled.
So what I'm doing is putting in
kind of general handful of compost.
I'm just using some Dalefoot compost here actually
the potting mix
just to give them a little extra goodness like that.
And I'm gonna start
because they're in water it's so much easier
to start to separate these plants out.
So I'm just gonna give them kind of a nice shake.
This is what I do with all my brassicas and also with leeks.
And it might seem quite damaging
and they'll wilt for a bit but then
before you know it they'll be perking back up
and they'll start growing really rapidly.
(soil rustling)
Gonna select this massive kale
and it doesn't matter if they are really big,
they're still going to transplant just fine.
So I'm gonna get this one here as well.
So
in terms of leaves,
kale for most of the year is always available for us.
It's usually kind of May and June where
you might not have the leaves that you're after.
And so what I'd recommend that you do
is say in early February,
you can start off some seedlings on your windowsill.
And what that's gonna allow you to do
is get the smaller leaves ready
cause you can transplant them into a polytunnel or something
kind of towards the end of March.
You'll let them go through
grow through April.
So it means that during May, June,
you're gonna get smaller and kind of medium kale leaves
just to see you through that gap.
So it's not always going to give you massive leaves
that you're wanting,
but what it does allow you is a continuous transition
right through the 12 months of the year
for you to be able to harvest kale leaves whenever you want.
Now for me I don't really care so much
about growing kale through May and June,
because that's when I'm enjoying
all of the kale flower shoots.
So ultimately it really comes down to,
and I think this is something that isn't mentioned enough
when it comes to self-sufficiency is firstly working out,
what do you actually enjoy eating the most?
And you don't want to start having something where
you just eat it all of the time,
because it kind of takes the fun away from it.
That's why just growing a little bit of kale
all through the year is gonna make a nice difference
because you'll always have it available,
but you'll never feel that you're going have
just way too much to deal with.
And you can save the hungry gap
for the most special part of kale for those flower shoots.
There's a general rule of thumb
if I'm transplanting the majority of my brassicas,
I use a trusty stick.
This is a bit of bamboo as a guide between plants.
So I like to transplant them around 45 centimeters apart.
And the other thing is,
is I'll just grab another plant here
is a great thing about brassicas
is that you can actually plant them right up
as deep up to the first kind of leaf.
So you don't need to put in them right here
where they were growing in the ground,
you can bury the nice and deep to this leaf,
and that's gonna help create a stronger plant
because some of these bigger ones might need a steak
later in the season when the winds start picking up.
After they've been transplanted I'll just go through,
I'll give them another good water.
I've already given this a nice soaking.
And then the final thing with brassicas,
that's really important is they actually like to
grow in a firm soil.
They don't want something that's super light and fluffy
because they need a strong root base.
Otherwise if the wind comes they'll just get blown away.
So what I actually do very carefully after transplanting
I'm actually gonna step around the stem of the plant
like that just to help firm it in nicely.
And now this is a solid kale plant.
It's all transplanted and ready to get growing.
One thing you might notice is that this kale
isn't under a net.
I don't actually net my brassicas.
I've got Swede,
I've also got a load of kohlrabi behind me.
None of them are netted and the reason why is that
there's a little bit of a balance happening
in terms of the past predator balance between the bird life,
which is amazing around here
and also the cabbage white butterflies.
But I do keep an active eye out.
I'll be looking through leaves every now and then
just to see if I see any clusters of eggs
or signs of damage,
and then I'll deal with it then.
I feel that if I net them I'll get a false sense of security
because if I net these I'll think that they're protected.
I probably won't look at them as much
and then I've known some people who've lost hold entire beds
to cabbage white butterflies
because they had that sense of security.
The other thing though I am really lucky
is that because it's not close to an urban area,
we don't have a big pigeon problem.
And I know a lot of people in urban areas
do suffer from pigeon damage.
So I know this case is unique
but if you're in a suburban, urban area,
I would definitely recommend netting your brassicas.
And just a little tip,
try and make sure that your brassica leaves
don't touch the net because the cabbage white butterflies
can still lay their eggs through the small netting,
In terms of general maintenance for your kale plants
it's really quite simple.
I'm just lightly hoeing out
some of the weeds that have appeared.
And if you live in an area where you tend to get snowfall,
that is one of the dangers that can come upon kale plants
during winter because if there's a ton of snow,
it can actually cause the plants to collapse.
So what you wanna do is just knock off any heavy snowfall
just to keep the plant standing and that's really it.
But in all honesty,
if there's one thing that you can get started with
in terms of being self-sufficient all through the year,
kale works fantastically.
Because it stays so fresh for so long in the ground,
you don't have to worry about all of the storing methods
that you need to do for things like garlic and potatoes.
It really can't be simpler.
It's hearty.
It's tasty.
You've got lots of different variety.
Kale is that perfect crop for you
to really get your foot through that door
into kind of a world of approaching self-sufficiency
from your growing space.
(hoe rustling)