A Beginner's Guide to Growing and Harvesting Kale

Kale is a superfood that is rich in nutrients and antioxidants. It is a versatile vegetable that can be used in salads, smoothies, and other dishes. Growing kale in your backyard is easy, and it can be a fun and rewarding experience. In this blog, I'll cover everything you need to know on how to grow kale. I'll be covering the complete growing process, from seed to harvest. So, let's get started!

Step 1: Starting Seeds To start growing kale, you will need seeds, growing medium, and containers. You can reuse many things to start your seeds, such as paper towel rolls and eggshells. Simply add growing medium to the paper towel rolls and eggshells and plant the seeds in each container. Germination typically occurs in just five days. Little kale plants will appear out of the eggshells. Paper towel rolls are great to use because you can plant the entire plant, including the paper towel roll, in your garden, and the paper towel roll will decompose naturally.

Step 2: Planting Kale After 10-14 days, the kale plants will be ready to transplant in the garden. Kale grows best in full sun and soil enriched with organic compost. Simply break the eggshell and place the plant, including the eggshell, in your garden, and cover with soil. The eggshell will decompose naturally and provide calcium to the plant. Plant spacing should be 18 inches apart, and row spacing should be anywhere from 18 inches to 2 feet apart. Water the plant after planting and keep watering every day or every couple of days to keep the soil moist. The best time to plant kale is in fall and spring.

Step 3: Maintaining Kale After three weeks, the kale plants start to grow bigger, and new and tender leaves start to grow out of the kale plants. The most common pest that affects kale is aphids. To combat this pest, you can use ladybugs or an organic spray. Mulching the kale plants with organic material will suppress weeds and keep the soil moist. Regularly water the plants at least once a week to create beautiful and lush plants.

Step 4: Harvesting Kale After two months, the plants are about ten to twelve inches high, and at this point, you can start harvesting the leaves. Cut the leaves from the bottom of the plant. As the plant grows, you can continue to harvest the leaves from the bottom of the plant so that the top leaves continue to grow. These leaves are really good sautéed. Kale is frost-resistant and can handle freezing temperatures well. The colder it gets, the sweeter the kale leaves get.

In conclusion, growing kale is a fun and rewarding experience. You can harvest kale leaves on the bottom of the plant all throughout its lifecycle, leaving just about four to five sets of leaves on top. After three months, the kale plants are 2 feet tall and loaded with leaves. Constantly picking leaves from the plant will increase the plant's size and produce more leaves. Plus, kale looks absolutely gorgeous, and it can actually be used in landscaping around your house. You can build an actual landscape garden that you can eat from!