EFN Homesteader's Kaleidoscope Kale Grex - overwintered

[nathanp]

Hi,
I have grown out seed from this a few times, but this year appear to finally have had plants overwinter successfully.  They survived -7F this year for the coldest night.  This location is on the edge of zone 7a/6b.  The seed is 2019 seed from Chris Homanics, sold through EFN as the "Homesteader's Kaleidoscope Kale Grex"
EFN - store link

I have questions on how they should be managed this year.  What needs to be done to maintain them? Should they be cut back, just trim off dessicated leaves, etc?
One of them is beginning to flower now.  Some are just beginning to leaf out and some of them appear to be dead with no new growth (yet?).

Pictures are available here:
Pictures here

[Diane Whitehead]

Mine have been growing since I received seeds from Chris in 2018.

When they put up flower buds I cut them and cook them like broccoli.

I've just re-read what he wrote about the kale - I should have been letting them set seed and then grown them to get unusual ones.  They take up a lot of space, though, and my vegetable garden isn't very big. Maybe I'll collect some seeds this year and give them to a brother with 40 acres.

[Steph S]

That's a nice low temperature to survive.

When we have brassicas overwinter we do as Diane said, cut some buds for 'mockoli' spring eating, but then at some point we usually let them go to seed, as none that I know of are true perennials - they will die after the second season afaik.  But maybe that depends on climate too?  As it sounds like Diane's is a true perennial. Or maybe it depends on not letting them go to seed?

My friends sometimes overwinter a short row of kale at the farm which they use for early spring greens.  I'm not sure if they prune for that, or whether they just let them produce leaf until they bolt.

Either way, I think kale in general will take whatever cutting you decide to do.  You can trim dessicated leaves for the health of the plant.   Or leave them if you want to select resistance to whatever they may have picked up over winter.  I think trimming dead bits is a good idea to promote clean new growth.

If you want them to flower simultaneously for intercrossed seed, you can eat the buds off the early one until the later ones catch up and then let it do its thing. They never seem to stop flowering once they've started. 

[galina gardiner]

Diane, that is a good long time to keep the same plants growing.  Mine are barely 3 years old.  Only two of them have flowered so far, one sparsely.  And we ate the flowers as broccoli.

From now on I will concentrate on perpetuating the best by cuttings, like I do with the Daubentons, as I don't know how many years they will survive here. Frost hardiness is a very important consideration here.  One of them, that made it fine through last year's winter, looks quite bad this year, we will see how it gets through the rest of the cold season. The others are fine.  It is becoming quite obvious, which ones I will take cuttings from.  The Daubentons I brought from England are not fully hardy here.  Without cuttings in the greenhouse I would have lost them by now.  The Kaleidoscopes are much hardier, but even they have their limits. Our frosts can easily reach 0 Fahrenheit or colder.   

I have the rest of my seed packet safely stored in the freezer, if I need more plants.  I am very grateful to Chris Homanics for these kales.