Kale, what would you do?

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I have a bunch of kale ready to cut.
It is right next to purple cabbage.
I found cabbage worms on the kale.
I am short of room.
Would it be best to cut all the kale and pull the plants and then plant kale in a different spot for fall?
Use that spot for beets or spinach.
Or, if I take most of the leaves and leave the kale plant will they grow enough leaves back to make it worth keeping them in that spot?

 

[digitS']

Well, I'd spray the kale and cabbage a couple of times over the next few weeks with either Bt or Spinosad, or both.

I'm not sure how well kale can start from seed right now, @Gardening with Rabbits . It might be okay but we will be into hot weather sometime soon ... it says here somewhere ...

If the plants have nice leaves and a stem bigger than your thumb and you don't want to spray, I imagine that replacement leaves would come right back no matter how many you take off.

Putting some fertilizer down around naked stems and hilling up with soil would help with a speedy recovery.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

Kale? Feed it to rabbits and hope they don't die.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, those cabbage worms on kale. I get them too, got some right now, the green loopers. That's why I grow the flat leaf kale, usually red russian, instead of the frilly, curly leaf kale. I can find the worms and the cocoons a lot easier on the flat leaves. I've sprayed once with Spinosad this season and it seemed to knock them back. I need to do that again but it has been raining a lot.

One trick I've used to get some kale when they get bad is to take every leaf off, just leaving a bud, and feed those leaves to the chickens. Then I spray the plant to kill whatever is there and let them grow. That way I don't spray the leaves I will eat. They haven't grown yet. I can usually get one harvest before the worms get too bad again. After doing this two or three times I just pull the plants.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

The leaves are in good shape, no damage yet. I am just wondering about space and how much kale do I want. Thanks for the ideas.

 

[so lucky]

Send it here.

 

[bills]

You can cut Kale back pretty hard, and it will survive. The leaves produced in the future are much smaller, but still wonderful eating. I have been picking leaves some from plants started last year, after cutting them back pretty hard. Quite a bit has now started going to seed, so I'll cut it back again and see if I get one more harvest in the fall.

I'd be concerned about the cabbage worms moving in on your cabbage..they can really mess it up..

 

[catjac1975]

Soak your kale in salt water with a weight like a plate on top. The cabbage worms will float to the top. Remove them and eat the kale. It may seem gross at first. But I think the things you can't see on crops from the store are worse. Pesticides etc. If you use BT it will rid you of the pest organically.

 

[Mackay]

Ive been using Bt and it works like a charm… but I've been reading that Bt genes have been found in humans related to Bt gmo's .. I wonder if these genes get into humans with just using regular Bt