Kale

There are quite a few species of this cabbage, some of them, for example Peking, are known to us for a long time. Sometimes cabbage of this species is called Chinese, Khibin or Harbin.

Others, such as Pak-Choi( one of many kinds of Chinese cabbage), have appeared recently. All leafy cabbage is very widely distributed in the East.

Of the modern varieties most interesting are the hybrids Manoko F1, Bilko F1, Taranko F1, as well as Naina, Nick and Kudesnitsa.

Leaf cabbages do not tie heads. They give a large rosette of large leaves, like a salad. Grow leafy cabbage very quickly. It takes only 40-50 days after sowing, and the harvest is ready. Begin to remove individual marginal leaves from cabbage much earlier, as soon as the rosette is 4-5 leaves.

All leaf cabbages are cold-hardy, therefore it is possible to sow them on seedlings already in the beginning of April, though in a greenhouse and under additional cover by lutrasil. After 4-6 days, the plants will ascend, and after 2 weeks they can be transplanted into the ground, but under lutrasil.

You can arrange bushes of seedlings directly in the greenhouse, at the very edge of the bed, at a distance of 30 cm from each other. And it is even better to sow seeds at a distance of 15 cm from each other along the edge of the garden in the greenhouse, because leafy cabbage does not tolerate the transplant and often blossom after it. The grown plants should be cut through one, so that the distance between the plants is about 30 cm, because with thickened planting plants also tend to bloom faster. Extruded young plant can be used for salads.

Leaf cabbage is undemanding to soils, but this does not mean that they can be sown anywhere and horrible. Like all cabbages, they love the humus-rich soil, with a neutral reaction, and good lighting. They should be watered with cold, clean water from the well regularly and fairly abundantly. But feeding can not give, if the soil is rich in organic, and if you are poor, you should feed weekly infusion of weeds. Diseases and pests in leafy cabbage are the same as in other species.

Leaf cabbage, like a salad, with a long light day quickly throw out a flower arrow. The same happens when the weather is hot, even on dark nights. From this moment, the leaves become tasteless, so cabbage should be either covered from 8 pm to 8 am black spunbond, or sow in the second half of July. Then the cabbage does not bloom for a long time and gives a large bouquet of large, juicy leaves.

I often use leaf petioles in writing. In Pak-choi, for example, they are thick, juicy and very tasty.