Hardiest Kale variety?

[seedywen]

In your experience.

Asking because after twenty years of successfully overwintering bountiful amounts of Siberian Kale in my west coast garden, I lost every plant to an early two week snow/freeze in November.

May have to take greater lengths to protect the winter crop or perhaps there is other varieties to experiment growing.

[mjc]

One of the things I've noticed with most brassicas, is that they are incredibly hardy...IF they have time to prepare for the worst. I've had Brussels sprouts and cabbages get lost in the snow and come out growing, only to be destroyed by a late spring frost. I've lost more brassicas to early frost or extreme cold, early in the season than any other overwintering problem.

[robertb]

That could be due to the snow insulating them from extreme cold.

Shetland kale might be one to try if you can find it. My sister lives on Orkney - some distance south of Shetland - and finds it impossible to garden at all. You won't get the extreme temperatures there though, due to the Gulf Stream.

[bertiefox]

Hardiness means different things in different climates. Lots of things I thought were really hardy in the UK aren't 'hardy' here, despite generally milder winters... or rather, colder nights and warmer days. Even things like Cottagers' Kale have been difficult here and I can never keep purple sprouting or spring cauliflowers through the winter. That's because the constant freezing and thawing, with days of a little new growth, makes all these brassicas rot. I'm even having problems this year with Forager Kale, grown mainly for the cattle. I'd guess some of the really 'hardy' kales like Cottagers would be ok if they were simply frozen for most of the winter though.

[stevil]

Very difficult to overwinter kales here as we have unstable snow cover. Nowadays I don't bother trying to overwinter and bring all the Brassicas in to the cold cellar (planted in earth) where I can continue to harvest and the plants self-blanch later towards spring in the dark as the temperature rises.
Just a kilometre inland from here snow cover is much more stable and kales will overwinter.

[ottawagardener]

We have consistent snow cover so kale is pretty hardy here. I successfully overwinter Red Ursa for many years, even some cabbages but again lots of snow most years.

Same here. Even in our climate which can have extreme cold in the winter, I've had brussel sprouts, chinese cabbage (China Choy did well producing a bountiful seed crop), kale, walking kale and heading cabbage all overwinter well. However, many of them have been cut back by late spring cold or die when the snow melts off of them. My 9 star broccoli did survive the winter but was rotten at the stem so even though it started to grow, it died. Now I realize, I should have tried to bring in some cuttings off the overwintered plant.

I think I"m going to try cellaring some plants, for winter greens, thanks Stephen.

[robertb]

You won't have ground continuously frozen at sea level in the UK. I used to go winter climbing every year, and the weather was always the same, one day it would be thawing, with all the gullies avalanching, the next it would be frozen solid again, with fantastic climbing. It could be the constant diurnal hammering that does it, as we don't get so much of a difference between day and night.

[silverseeds]

I havent really grown kale before, though Im going to soon. But Ive read Tim Peters "gulag stars" is supposed to be rather hardy among kales. I got a bag of this variety right from him if you want some for a SASE. He bred another variety thats supposed to be a bit hardier. "Western front" I believe. I dont have this to spare but you might ask atash. He has it, though Im not sure in quantity to trade or sell. (hes got a new seed company going)

Like i said I never really grew kale so Ive got no idea what is the hardiest. Im basing this off of a description a site that listed info about it had. Tim didnt really send it with info....

[sorellina]

Ciao all-

I transplanted some ornamental kale seedlings on St. Pat's during a spell of reasonably mild weather for this time of year in Toronto. They got covered due to cold temperatures that occured a few days post-transplanting, but the cover came off and we got 15cm of snow yesterday. Would it do more harm than good to re-cover them now? What are their chances of survival at this point, would you say?

[ottawagardener]

15cm of snow? I'm sorry to hear that! We got 10cm the other day but thankfully it melted off pretty quick. Still have quite a bit of snowpack at my property though.

I often plant cabbage and broccoli when the ground starts to thaw, covering them for extreme cold. I guess their root systems weren't quite established but I think there's a pretty good chance they'll make it through if the snow melts quickish.

[sorellina]

Ciao ottawagardener-

Thanks for that glimmer of hope. I'm not well-versed in the art of cold-stratification and wintersowing, so this kind of thing is well out of my scope of understanding and comfort. It sounds like you think they should just remain as is and not to bother trying to remove the snow manually and covering them then?

[ottawagardener]

You could gently brush off some snow and put a bottomless pop bottle or milk jug over them as a cover. This will locally increase the heat and give them some protection from the wind as well as insulation.

[ottawagardener]

Oh, just make sure that the tops are off. You'll need to vent heat.

[sorellina]

Ciao ottawagardener-

That sounds like a good idea on paper, but how do you anchor the bottles so the wind doesn't blow them off?

[ottawagardener]

I usually grind them into the snow/dirt a bit. This normally keeps them anchored. My place maybe wasn't too windy though. Good luck.