Growing vegetables in their garden, summer residents dream of getting an environmentally friendly and vitamin-rich harvest. Cabbage - white or cauliflower - is very popular with domestic gardeners. However, there is another culture that is undeservedly forgotten. This is kale, which, despite its somewhat overseas name, grows well in our latitudes. In addition, this garden crop contains many times more nutrients than many other vegetables.
Kale - description
It belongs to the cruciferous family. It is often referred to as kale, browncol or bruncol. But most often it is simply called "curly cabbage." Unlike her "sisters", she does not form a head.
This vegetable crop is an incredibly beautiful curly leaves collected in a lush rosette. Depending on the variety, kale can also look like a spectacular “palm tree”, reaching a height of up to one meter. This beauty in Europe is often used as an ornamental plant, which, thanks to its bright gray, greenish-purple or dark red leaves take their rightful place in the design of flower beds.
It must be said that this culture is valued not only for its spectacular appearance. The main advantage that kale has is the composition of curly juicy leaves that is incredibly rich in many elements. Eating them makes it possible to saturate the body not only with various vitamins and minerals, but also with many bioactive compounds.
Useful properties
Kale is one of the leading plant foods in terms of protein content. It can be a great alternative to meat. In addition, kale contains two and a half dozen amino acids vital for humans, and its leaves contain as many omega-3 acids as fish.
Literally one glass of freshly made juice from bruncoli leaves is enough to cover the daily requirement of our body for vitamin A. It is worth mentioning separately about calcium. Kale leaf contains as much of it as this substance in a similar volume of any dairy product. And this is against the background of the fact that there are only fifty kilocalories in one hundred grams of brauncol, this vegetable is simply indispensable in dietary nutrition.
Experts recommend using the leaves fresh to get the most out of this curly crop, although they are often added to soups or vegetable stews, light side dishes for meat and fish, pie fillings, etc.
Care conditions
Kalecontains a large number of useful trace elements. Therefore, it deserves special attention from gardeners. The agrotechnical standards that characterize the cultivation of kale are no different from the conditions for caring for our usual white variety. But if the latter is planted exclusively in garden beds, then for brucoli you can allocate space even in a flower garden. Throughout the summer season, it will look beautiful. Its curly leaves look equally impressive both in compositions with flowers and in single plantings, especially next to other varieties of kale. An important feature of this curly vegetable crop is its incredible cold resistance. The plant can withstand even eighteen-degree frost. At the same time, it does not lose either decorative or useful properties. Moreover, under the influence of low temperature, the browncol becomes more saturated in color, and the leaves - a pleasant sweetish taste. Growing kale does not require special skills from the gardener, it is enough just to follow all the necessary agrotechnical standards. The landing site should be sunny. The ideal option would be a slight elevation in an area where there is no groundwater and drafts.
Grunkol prefers soil loose, not acidic, with humus and ash.
When to sow kale seedlings
Usually this crop matures seventy to eighty days after emergence. Therefore, many gardeners do not grow seedlings at home, but immediately place the seeds in the ground underfilm. Sowing is best done in late March or early April. The temperature for seed germination should be at least +6 degrees. Kale does not like transplants, so it is better to immediately grow planting material in a bed under a film cover, and thin out seedlings somewhere in the middle or end of April. If summer residents do not have the opportunity to travel to the site during these periods, then you still have to grow seedlings at home. This can be done at the end of March. And already with the onset of favorable conditions, somewhere in the middle of May, you need to land it in open ground.
Features of growing seedlings
Many believe that it is better to place the seeds in special seedling cassettes with cells filled with a light substrate. After planting, you need to thoroughly spill them with warm water.
Pre-soaked kale seeds (2-3 pieces) are laid out in each cell and deepened by about 1 cm. After the appearance of the first shoots, only one of the he althiest sprouts should be left in each cell. Seedlings should be taken care of as usual: regularly watering, illuminating the seedlings with lamps, feeding and maintaining the temperature in the room within + 15 … 18 degrees. Kale seedlings do not like excessive moisture. It should be watered moderately, otherwise the seedlings may become infected with blackleg.
Landing
Grunkoli bed should be in a sunny place. Before planting in the soil, it is necessary to add humus and mineral fertilizers. If there is acidic soil on the site, then digging should be additionallyadd wood ash. Heavy clay soils are lightened by rotted sawdust. Only after that, in May, already hardened seedlings are transferred to the garden. This is done as follows: an earthen lump with a seedling is carefully squeezed out of the cells and transferred to the holes located on the bed at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other.
Seedlings are deepened to the bottom leaf, the soil around the stems is compacted, and then the hole is abundantly spilled with settled water.
Water and weed removal
Kale is considered a very moisture-loving plant, so watering should be carried out in such a way that the earth in the garden is constantly in a moderately wet state. Irrigation of the plant with water heated in the sun is also very useful. Sprinkling from a watering can kale takes well. After each watering, the aisles should be loosened, slightly spudding the stems. A mandatory event is the removal of weeds. To make this cabbage easier to care for, you can mulch the soil under the plants by adding a thick layer of straw or sawdust.
Feeding
To make rosettes of leaves lush, feces must be fertilized periodically. The first top dressing is needed on the fifteenth day after transplanting the seedlings to the beds. For this, a urea solution is used. Three weeks later, the second feeding with mullein is carried out at the rate of 1:10. Curly cabbage needs fertilizer three times a season. The last time she is fed with a solution of nitrophoska. This is done five weeks after planting the seedlings. Top dressing is best done in the late afternoon.after watering, applying one liter of this or that fertilizer under each root.
Pests, diseases
Kale is affected by the same ailments as its white "sister". When the first signs of fungal diseases such as clubroot, peronosporosis or powdery mildew appear, the bushes should be treated with a fungicide solution.
Heavily affected bushes are best removed from the general plantation. The succulent kale leaves like to be attacked by white caterpillars, aphids, cruciferous fleas and other harmful insects. You can get rid of them with the help of insecticides.
Harvest
Kale (depending on the variety) can be consumed as early as the second or third month after the first shoots appear. After the rosette reaches a height of 20-25 cm, it is already possible to cut the first leaves. Moreover, the younger the cabbage, the more tender and tastier they are. Cutting leaves is best done early in the morning, when they are saturated with moisture as much as possible. Kale will keep in the refrigerator for seven to eight days. In the frozen state, it will not lose its beneficial properties for almost half a year.
But the best way to consume it is to prepare a vitamin salad as soon as the leaves are plucked.
Varieties
Among the varieties of kale there are varieties with wavy, terry and curly leaf plates. There are three types of this culture - undersized (up to 40 cm), medium-sized (40-60 cm) and tall (up to 90 cm) grunkol. In addition, there issubdivision and for the timing of the harvest: for early, medium and late-ripening varieties. Among the wide variety of kale species, domestic gardeners choose those that grow well in our climatic conditions. Among them, the late-ripening Redbor F1 hybrid, which produces delightful dark purple terry leaves, is especially distinguished. This variety, growing up to 80 cm, has a high yield, cold resistance and decorative effect. Premier, Red, Scarlet, Reflex, etc. are also very popular in our country.
