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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 13, 2012 4:31:10 GMT -5
We are going to take a stab at doing some flowering kale for overwintering in the hoophouses this winter for January sales. I bought some seed from Johnny's for Nagoya Garnish Red F1 www.johnnyseeds.com/showproduct.aspx?ProductID=5694&SEName=nagoya-garnish-red-f1Anyone grow these pretty kales? I understand there are a few varieties out, Johnny's just carries the one. I feel like I've seen ones that have multicolored centers white/pink/green but I haven't seen anything like that on a google image search. I can sell any green brassica at the winter market, these are supposed to taste fantastic in cold weather and should look amazing on a display if they hold up til Jan. I would welcome any advice on timing/varieties/etc. |
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 13, 2012 4:36:50 GMT -5
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edwin
gardener
Posts: 141
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Post by edwin on Jul 13, 2012 5:24:25 GMT -5
We've done overwintering kale in a hoop house, but not the types you are suggesting. It worked well. Red Russian worked better than dinosaur, but that worked too. My feeling is that it most kale is harvestable from under a hoop house as an extended harvest item around here.
Last year we got our overwintering crops in late. The greens were too late and none came up except claytonia and kale. Kale was tiny. Not a lot of growing.
We are unable to access hoop houses around here from Dec - March.
While your second link does not say - I assume all these beautiful kales are f1's?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 13, 2012 6:38:09 GMT -5
All the ones I've found so far are F1's.
Why can't you access you hoophouses Dec- March?
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Post by raymondo on Jul 13, 2012 6:50:02 GMT -5
Ooooohhhhhhhh......some of those are stunning. I'd be tempted to grow them just for the show!
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edwin
gardener
Posts: 141
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Post by edwin on Jul 13, 2012 7:05:37 GMT -5
We can't access our hoop houses because
1. the plastic is frozen to the ground
2. the hoop houses are buried under 3+ feet of snow. (we get 6+ feet in a year)
For a harvest period for dec-mar we would need a greenhouse.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jul 13, 2012 8:02:51 GMT -5
Yep, that's what happens when you live in the Snow Belt!
I had some success in Eastern Ontario with an insulated Cold Frame. Just shoveled the ice and snow from the glass front every morning.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 13, 2012 8:36:40 GMT -5
Oh, we have a similar problem although we almost certainly get less lake effect than you guys. But our houses have doors for access and I blow snow out to them, except for this winter when snow never happened.
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Post by ottawagardener on Jul 13, 2012 8:58:58 GMT -5
Us to though again, we probably have less snow though this year we still had snow. I normally have to knock snow off the polytunnel (when I had one) and shovel around to the entrance. Meant for some pretty amusing pictures of the tiptop of the polytunnel peaking through a 4foot drift.
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edwin
gardener
Posts: 141
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Post by edwin on Jul 13, 2012 9:01:02 GMT -5
We make ours with 10' wide electrical conduit with 1' buried into the ground. I cover with 10' wide vapor barrier plastic. Height is approx 2.5'. I just fold extra plastic over the ends. I use wood to brace for the snow load.  We could keep the ends open and harvest from them. Because of the height, it would be difficult to harvest more than 3 or so feet into them. Because of high winds and costs, I don't think we could make them much higher without running into problems. |
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 14, 2012 6:20:10 GMT -5
I took the plunge and bought both colors of the Coral Series from Osbourne. I'm looking to jazz up my display for winter market.
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Post by steev on Jul 14, 2012 18:40:41 GMT -5
Here in the Bay Area, it seems generally sold as an ornamental, although it occasionally is included as baby greens in salad mixes. I think it's very tasty as kale.
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