Does Anyone Grow Collards?

[so lucky]

I tried to grow them last year but they just sat and didn't grow after transplanting. Then the worms got to them. I think they were Vates. Is there a better variety?
The collards I buy in the store have been good in the winter, but were tough and bitter in the summer. Is this common? Do you start them in the fall or spring?

 

[Lori B]

I would agree that they are better in the winter. Many brassicas like collards and brussels sprouts are better tasting after they have been subject to a non killing frost or two. Also, if they sit too long as a transplant, they tend to not do well in the garden after being transplanted.

I grow in both spring and fall, but the fall collards do better in my area.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i did Vates & Georgia in my garden last year. they did ok but were slow to grow since i put mine in during the spring. we did have what i thought was a rainy & cooler than normal summer. once the colder August set in they started taking off though. i usually throw this to the chickens as treats anyways so i don't mind the bug bites on the leaves.

there is a heading collard i've been looking at getting called Morris Heading, and there is a perennial tree collard i've seen being sold too. i've seen it referred to as a 'walking stick'.

 

[digitS']

So Lucky, I have tried for years to come up with a "summer hardy" member of this family. A guy originally from Louisiana and who works with a neighbor saw my Portuguese kale in 2014. "Oh! Is that collards?"

When he showed up in the spring of 2015, I gave him some kale plants - Scotch kale.

I have resigned myself to Scotch kale, mostly. (What @Sweetcorn calls "green cardboard" ). The young leaves are pretty much okay, right through summer.

With the record heat, the Portuguese kale quit on me in 2015. However, it seemed almost bullet-proof until last year. There was a larger variety of kia-lan, South Seas, that worked fairly well through more temperate summers but didn't in 2015. Broccoli raab has had good and bad years.

Yes, a healthy, big, leafy brassica would be welcome in my summer garden - a biennial would be nice. It is a little too arid and hot here for them. I'm sorry you didn't have a better experience in Missouri.

The bugs like all of these things. Aphids are the worst for me and, because of the way it grows, cabbage can have huge problems. The wrinkles in Scotch kale give the dang things plenty of places to hide. I thought that the smoother leaves of Russian kale would be a better choice but aphids must relish that rutabaga relative!

I had also thought that collards needed and cruise through summer heat and that we don't have enough of those weeks of that kind of weather here.

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I planted them last year, Georgia Southern and Vates. I started them in the house Feb. 18. They had some rough treatment. Some were in pots that had to be separated and they were pretty big, but they survived all that. I planted a lot and gave some to the neighbor. Both of us have collards standing with snow on them. I am not sure if they are dead or not. I was going to just wait and see. I have kale out there and I had kale survive and still grow. They look alive, but then I am not sure. They were planted where they got a lot of water and they had some shade from the west sun. I have a freezer full of them, ate them fresh, dehydrated them and gave some away. I had aphids for the first time attack the kale, which was right next to the collards. The aphids ate the kale and stayed off the collards. I had my best cabbage year. I used ceyenne pepper spray and put the powder on the plants. I am not sure if that is what kept the worms off the cabbage and I saved the kale by putting the pepper on them. Took awhile for the leaves to grow back, but almost all the Red Russian kale was just covered where the leaves were curling. I am going to grow both kinds of collards again.

 

[so lucky]

Sounds like we all have different experiences with collards, kale and other brassicas. Do you think I should have planted the collards in the fall, and let them overwinter as small plants? Or start them mid-summer and hope they mature in winter?

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

interesting how my brussels sprouts from 2014 that i thought had died actually over-wintered nicely from the thick layer of snow from 2015. they grew slowly and some flowered for me last summer. the leaf litter & the snow seemed to blanket them well enough that they didn't die off.

 

[digitS']

Not entirely different, @so lucky ...

I guess I'm encouraged by 2 of @Gardening with Rabbits ' experiences.

1) she could grow collards in the record heat we had last year.
2) aphids really, really love Russian kale! It's a separate species from the others, a rutabaga. Maybe we could use it as a trap crop away from everything else and hit it with a flamethrower at the appropriate moment.

Steve

 

[baymule]

I grew Georgia Southern at our old house. I planted seedlings in the fall, they made nice plants and we ate collards all winter. In the early summer, some bolted and went to seed. Some didn't. The plants that didn't bolt stayed with me for 4 years before they finally went to seed. They got as tall as I was, fell over, twisted around and looked like a bed of skinny snakes with big leafy ears. I was delighted.

I picked the lower leaves for the chickens all summer, they loved having fresh greens. In the fall/winter we ate collards, but I still shared with the chickens.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I had some flower and some didn't. They were side by side and here and there some would go to seed. I started harvesting a bunch of leaves in July because I was sure they would all go to see, but they were out there really growing nice in the fall. I am confused about it.