walking stick kale??? never seen this before

[Jim]

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[wolfcub]

Hi Jim this is an heirloom from the Channel Islands they can grow over 6ft in height. At the end of the season the canes can be cut , carved and varnished to make what else a walking stick. The seeds are sold through T&M

[ottawagardener]

I just got some seeds, I think it was from Nichols Nursery. Are you thinking of trying it? It's one of the brassicas that can behave in a perennial fashion, so I've heard.

[pugs]

Jim,

Do you want some seeds of it? I'm going to place an order with T&M and I'll be visiting Nichols next weekend. If either one have it I can order you some.

Pugs

[Jim]

Pugs,

I appreciate it but I think I'm maxed out this year. I'm already weeding down my grow list but thank you for offering.

Ottawa and Wolf,
I saw it in an email from an ebay seller I buy from I thought it was cool. I don't think I'll grow it this year but I have never seen it before.

Jim

[ottawagardener]

By the way, the little man Sam is very cute.

[Jim]

thanks. he's my little buddy. I imagine all the "help" he'll be in the garden this year..

[bunkie]

i traded some seeds with stevil and got some walking stick kale and am planning on growing it this year. perhaps stevil might have some knowledge about this...

[emmajane]

I grew it on my allotment a couple of years ago. Be sure to provide adequate support as they reach for the heavens. The leaves are edible, but tough, however, I like my greens so de-ribbed, I ate them shredded and steamed. I didn't make walking sticks from the stems, I grew them as I was given the seed and the children loved seeing how tall they grew.

[ottawagardener]

Jim: I have two darlings that are 5 and 3. They are of 'some' help in the garden. They do like shelling legumes which I find very helpful!

[alkapuler]

-maybe a decade or two ago, we got some Walking Stick Giant Kale seeds from England and it has since reseeded itself every year in our backyard garden
-every once in a while a plant will live through 2 winters
-9 Star Perennial Broccoli also survives 2 and sometimes three winters especially if one eats the fall flower spikes; many plants are more susceptible to cold after flowering
-so does Sea Kale, Crambe maritima, which lasts for several winters and reestablishes itself with underground rhizomes, if the rodents don't eat the crowns
-and from cultivars like Snow's Cauliflower, Eco Brussel Sprouts, Romanesco Broccoli with thick, hefty and stout stalks, plants close to or still heirlooms, it seems that the strong and somewhat woody stems allows longer term survival
-so we crossed Eco Brussel Sprouts with Romanesco Broccoli
-the F4 generation had some plants that were like shrubby trees
-in the same field, a little later, a Holland Late Winter Cabbage seed crop flowered, we harvested and planted about 60-80 plants from the seed; there were several crosses to kale, a host of nice cabbages and 4 plants with five to nine 1-2' long arms having cabbages on each arm-a little cabbage tree with a vegetable on each arm

-these observations and developments all have to do with developing perennial brassicas

PS we have been supplying Nichols Garden Seeds with Walking Stick Giant Kale for the recent several years

[grungy]

Al, what kind of winter weather are you overwintering in. This sound very interesting and if possible I would love to try some of you experiments out in my own garden.

[raymondo]

Interesting things happening in your garden Al. I hope to trial a host of collards and kales I got from Long Island Seed Project but I have to build cages first to keep the Cabbage White Butterly from using the patch as a convenient creche for her young!

[ottawagardener]

Alan - thanks for writing about your observations. I'm very interested in perennial brassicas and am trialing some potential candidates in my urban 'oasis' this year. I like the fact that the walking stick kale reseeds itself but then I always like this characteristic! It must be your walking stick kale that I have then.

The woody stalk thing is interesting. I wonder what would happen if you cut off the whole flowering head of something like kale and left the stem to resprout. I say this only because sometimes cold kills off the top of my brassicas and they resprout in the spring.

I'm sure you've seen this before but for others who are curious, I've found that cabbage and kale will survive at least three years if kept from flowering and if they are under a heavy snow cover. For example, I have one red cabbage that has been growing for three years. It did have it's large head cut off. The second year, it produced smaller, loose heads but these didn't flower. The third year they did so I imagine it's done now. Same with kale, it will just keep on going it seems until either cold or flowering.

[Alan]

Excellent posts my friends! Very interesting stuff. This year I am growing a number of perinnial brassica crops that folks have sent me for experiments over the last couple of years, I'm pretty excited over the possibilities.

Alkapuler, one of the things you mentioned above was:
-in the same field, a little later, a Holland Late Winter Cabbage seed crop flowered, we harvested and planted about 60-80 plants from the seed; there were several crosses to kale, a host of nice cabbages and 4 plants with five to nine 1-2' long arms having cabbages on each arm-a little cabbage tree with a vegetable on each arm

Other than being an amazing oddity that you got the cabbage tree, did you do any further work with this line? What size were the heads and was it productive enough or novel enough to consider worth working with? Wouldn't it be something if all the stars aligned and you got a great tasting and highly productive cabbage tree that was perrinialized? That would be a leap forward in cabbage cultivation in my opinion!