Growing kale in pots

 

Last year I grew about fifteen Lacinato or
Dinosaur kale plants in 16" pots and had a good
crop. I ate them regularly 3-4 times/week for
about 9 months.

This year I removed the plants from the pots and
it seems that the roots are only a
fraction the size of the pots - about 6-8"
diameter- suggesting that there are still lots of
nutrients in the old soil.

Last year I bought all the potting soil and now
I'm preparing to plant again and wondering if some
of the old soil could be re-used this year with
the new potting soil. Has anyone tried this before?

I now have a batch of 10 - week-old seedlings
ready for transplanting. The previous plants had
no diseases and the only bothersome things were
whitefiles and white butterflies. I live in north
California.

Comments appreciated.

 

I reuse potting soil all the time for house plants with no ill effects. I've
never tried it with food crops, though. Is kale a heavy feeder? If not, it
may work fine, especially if you are giving them plant food.

Utopia in Decay -- The future is coming to get you.
http://home.comcast.net/~kevin.cherkauer/site/

Kevin Cherkauer

 

Thanks Kevin for the info. I'm not sure what kind
of feeder kale
is classified as. I will try a few experiments,
like replacing half
the old soil.

Kevin Cherkauer wrote:

 



This is a specific UK newsgroup and I don't think many people in UK
grow kale in pots.   I'd love to try but we can't get that variety
over here.   I looked on a web site and it was 3 dollars for the seed
and 6 dollars for postage!  
I don't think you'll get such good results with old compost.  Why not
try an experiment, grow some in old and some in new compost.

Pam in Bristol

 

Pam Moore wrote:

The prices they quoted you seem ridiculous.

You should be able to Pam. Thompson and Morgan
(based in UK since about 1850) sells them. They
have a US base too and that's where I bought mine
recently.

In US:  http://www.tmseeds.com/  and
In UK: http://www.tmseeds.co.uk/

     Thompson & Morgan (UK) Ltd
     Poplar Lane
     Ipswich
     Suffolk
     United Kingdom
     IP8 3BU
     Customer Care: +44 (0)1473 - 688 821
     Switchboard: +44 (0)1473 - 695 200
     Fax: +44 (0)1473 - 680 199
     Email: ccare@thompson-morgan.com
     Web Page: http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk
     Vat no: 637 8510 20 GB
     Company Registration: 358372 England

The following is the US URL for the Kale:

http://www.tmseeds.com/search.html?sterm=kale&x=8&y=6

I have one packet:  Kale, Black Tuscany, Cat code 40,
Seed Origin UK, Packed in UK. Average No. seeds 250.
Price was around $3.
The other one is Italian but packed in UK. It
looks the same as the
Tuscany, costs $2.49 and, according the the packet
info, it has an
average of 2,500 seeds!!!

Have fun :-)

Before I had thought of posting here, I was
thinking of replacing 1/2
of last years soil. I'll try your suggestion. Thanks.