Brassicas
Kale (incl. Dino)
Fall-only; sweetest leaves of the winter garden.
- Indoors
- 6 wk (Jul)
- Outside
- Transplant Sep 1-20
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun; takes part shade
- Water
- Daily two weeks at set-out; even after, or leaves toughen
- Harvest
- Nov to Feb, sweetest after each frost
Care
- Water
- Transplants go out into September heat, so water daily for about two weeks until roots take, then taper as the mid-September rains return. Keep it even through the fall run, since a dry stall toughens the leaves; winter beds want only a soak in a dry spell.
- Sow
- In cells in July, 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, keep the stronger; warm soil sprouts them fast. Set plants a foot to eighteen inches apart in the bed on the September 1 to 20 window, the 20th the last call in the state's Region III dates.
- Start inside
- No heat mat: warm July soil sprouts brassicas in a few days. No lights either; the summer bench grows in full sun with shade after 3 p.m., kept moist but not wet, the fall guide's recipe, until the transplants are set out.
- Feed
- Compost worked in at transplant starts the bed; side-dress as the October growth run gets going, a hungry leaf crop sizing up in cool soil. Nothing feeds in the July-August heat, and the bench potting soil carries its own feed until set-out.
- Ready
- Cut outer leaves once they are hand-sized and leave the center working; the plant runs for months that way. Each frost converts starch to sugar, and a Killeen winter supplies frost after frost without ever freezing the crown in the ground.
- Trouble
- Cabbageworms and loopers chew through the long mild fall: net at transplant, or handpick weekly with Bt in reserve. Gray aphid colonies tuck into winter plants; a hard water blast a few days running usually breaks them up.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 3–5 gal bag.
- Water
- Every day or two in a dry fall spell, tapering as the rains return; winter rain does most of the watering, so give the bag real drainage for it.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly through the fall run; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- One plant per bag. The Texas container guide names no kale size, but its 1-gallon salad-greens class makes a 3 to 5 gallon bag generous.
Kale skips spring here entirely: the July bench transplants in September, and the plants stand through the mild winter, sweetening with every frost.
Growing
The family inverts in Killeen and kale is the plainest case: a crop that anchors spring calendars in cool climates starts here in July, transplants September 1 to 20, and cuts through the winter greens season into February. The county calendar is explicit that brassicas do better in fall than in the short spring, and kale is the crop that agrees hardest. Water daily while the transplants root out in September heat, then let the cool fall run size the plants. Harvest outer leaves and leave the center working; every frost sweetens the crop, and this winter delivers frost after frost without the ground ever freezing solid. Where cold-climate calendars end kale in December, the January cutting here is the best of the year.
Varieties
The state greens sheet names Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch, Dwarf Blue Curled Vates, Green Curled and Rebor; the Travis County list adds Red Russian, Scarlet, Toscano/Dinosaur and Winterbor, at 55 to 70 days. No heat-tolerant strain appears on any list, which is honest: the July bench and September bed are the heat strategy.
Pests
Cabbageworms and loopers work the leaves through the long mild fall, so the netting goes over at transplant and stays; Bt handles an outbreak. Gray aphid colonies tuck into winter plants, and a hard hose blast repeated a few days running usually ends it. Warm September soil runs flea beetles on the youngest leaves until the plants outrun them.
In the kitchen
The winter garden's salad crop: frost-sweetened leaves cut thin and eaten raw when the garden gives them, braised with garlic when it does not, and chips whenever the oven is on anyway. A January cutting of frost-touched kale is the sweetest of the year, the cold-climate promise without the snow.