Greens & herbs
Collards
Heat and cold tolerant BBQ side.
- Indoors
- 6 wk (Apr)
- Outside
- Transplant in May
- Where
- In ground or raised bed
- Sun
- Full sun; takes part shade
- Water
- Deep soak 2x a week; trowel test 2 in down
- Harvest
- Jun to Dec, sweetest after frost
Care
- Water
- Aim for a deep soak a couple of times a week between rain and hose, checking a couple of inches down with a trowel before you add more. In ground the soil buffers a lot, but a dry August stalls the plant and the new leaves come in tough and bitter.
- Sow
- Sow 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell and keep the stronger. Seedlings are ready to move out in 4 to 6 weeks; give them 18 inches down the bed, a foot and a half apart in the ground.
- Start inside
- Keep the mat warm, above 75F, until they sprout in 5 to 10 days, then shift them to a cool bright spot near 60F so the seedlings stay stocky. Hardy enough to transplant out in May, ahead of the tender crops.
- Feed
- Brassicas are heavy nitrogen feeders: a shovel of compost or castings at transplant, then a side-dress of more compost and a fish and seaweed drink through early summer. Make the last feeding midsummer, since later nitrogen pushes soft growth that will not harden for the cold.
- Ready
- Take the lowest, oldest leaves first and let the crown climb, so the plant becomes a stalk topped with new growth. Leave it standing through fall; a hard freeze sweetens every leaf, and the best picking comes after the cold sets in.
- Trouble
- Ragged holes and green caterpillars: imported cabbageworm and loopers, hand-pick or spray Bt. Shothole speckling on young plants: flea beetles, cover new transplants. And keep brassicas out of the same spot for a few years to duck root maggots.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 7–10 gal bag.
- Water
- A bag dries faster than open ground, so soak every day or two in a July dry spell, checking the top half inch. About 45 to 60 sec on the shower dial until the seams drip.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly and keep the fish and seaweed drink up to the midsummer cutoff; a bag leaches with every watering.
- Sow
- One plant per 7 to 10 gallon bag; it grows into a tall stalk, so the wider bag keeps it from toppling.
Collards go in once in spring and hold their ground from June into December, shrugging at heat and improving with frost. One planting, seven months of side dishes.
Growing
Start indoors in April, transplant in May at eighteen inches, and harvest up the stalk, lowest leaves first, so each plant becomes a leggy palm tree of future dinners. Heat that stops lettuce and spinach does not slow them, and hard frost just converts starch to sugar. Feed once in midsummer and keep picking; the December leaves are the best of the year. Do not let August dry them out; leaves built in drought come in thick and leathery and stay that way in the pot.
Varieties
Champion is the compact Vates type that stands cold best; Georgia Southern is the sprawling heirloom with the classic flavor.
Pests
Cabbageworms work collards as hard as any brassica, so the family rules apply: netting at transplant, or weekly underside checks with Bt in reserve. Gray aphid colonies arrive in fall, and water pressure applied early beats them.
In the kitchen
Slow-braised with something smoked until the pot likker is worth bread on its own. Young leaves sliced thin also make a raw slaw that holds its dressing overnight.