Down at our local community garden, the kale plants have grown into mini trees, some upwards of 5 feet tall. A that height, the plants are being blown over, plus they are getting awkward to harvest from. The community garden is presently growing replacement seedlings, thus the kale trees will soon be removed.
Something inside me wondered if perchance one could propagate new plants from those mightly kale stalks. Since kale does not flower here, purchasing seed from the mainland is the only way to grow it. Not very self sufficient, is it? So, if kale could be vegetatively propagated, it would be another small step towards self reliance.
This week when I harvested some kale for dinner, instead of just taking a few leaves, I chopped the entire top off the plant including a length of stem with it.
After I took the leaves I wanted to eat, I then set about trimming up what was left, getting ready to try planting them. I removed most of the leaves (they would only wilt and die off anyway, sapping moisture away from the stem) and cut the stem into 6 inch long sections.
Down in the field garden I tilled and prepared a short section of bed, adding compost and removing any weeds. Once I was satisfied, I was ready the plant. I thought about using Rootone, but discovered that the bottle I had was empty. Thus this first planting attempt would be au natural.....no rooting hormone.
I took each piece and pressed it down into the soil, leaving about 2 inches of stem above ground. With the leafless stem pieces, I needed to be sure to plant them the right direction instead of upside down. Luckily the leaf scar is crescent shaped making it easy to tell up from down.
Spacing....my beds are 40 inches wide.
Thus I opted to plant four cuttings across the bed about 10 inches apart. Each row of 4 was spaced about 12 inches apart.
Once planted, the cuttings were watered in to make sure there was good soil contact around the stem pieces.
Now we wait and see what happens.
