Growing vegetables in their garden, summer residents dream of getting an environmentally friendly crop full of vitamins. Very popular among domestic gardeners enjoys cabbage - white or cauliflower. However, there is another culture that is undeservedly forgotten. This is kale cabbage, which, despite its somewhat overseas name, grows beautifully in our latitudes. In addition, this garden crop contains many times more nutrients than many other vegetables.
Kale cabbage - description
It belongs to the crucifer family. Often it is called cale, brauncol or bruncol. But more often than not, it is simply called "curly cabbage." Unlike her “sisters,” she does not head out.
This vegetable crop is an incredibly beautiful curly leaves collected in a lush rosette. Depending on the variety, kale cabbage may also look like a spectacular “palm”, reaching a height of up to one meter. This beauty in Europe is often used as an ornamental plant, which, thanks to its bright bluish, greenish-purple or dark red leaves, occupies a worthy place in the design of flower beds.
I must say that this culture is valued not only for its spectacular appearance. The main advantage possessed by kale is the incredibly rich composition of curly juicy leaves for many elements. Their use in food makes it possible to saturate the body not only with various vitamins and minerals, but also with many bioactive compounds.
Beneficial features
Kale kale among the products of plant origin occupies one of the leading places in protein content. It can be a great alternative to meat. In addition, kale contains two and a half dozen amino acids vital for humans, and its leaves contain as many omega-3 acids as in fish.
Literally one glass of freshly made juice from bruncoli leaves is enough to cover our body's daily requirement for vitamin A. It is worth mentioning calcium separately. Kale leaf cabbage contains it as much as this substance in the same volume of any dairy product. And this against the background of the fact that there are only fifty kilocalories in one hundred grams of Brauncal, this vegetable is simply irreplaceable in dietary nutrition.
To get the most out of this curly crop, experts recommend using fresh leaves, although they are often added to soups or vegetable stews, they make light side dishes for meat and fish, stuffing for pie, etc.
Care conditions
Kale cabbage contains a large number of useful trace elements. Therefore, it deserves special attention from gardeners. The agrotechnical standards that characterize the cultivation of kale cabbage are no different from the conditions for caring for the familiar white variety. But if the latter is planted exclusively on garden beds, then for bruncoli you can allocate a place even in the flower garden. Throughout the summer season, it will look beautiful. Its curly leaves look equally impressive both in compositions with flowers and in single plantings, especially in the neighborhood with other varieties of feces. An important feature of this curly vegetable crop is its incredible cold resistance. The plant can withstand even eighteen degrees of frost. At the same time, it does not lose either decorativeness or useful properties. Moreover, under the influence of low temperature, brauncol acquires a more saturated color, and the leaves - a pleasant sweetish taste. Cultivation of kale cabbage does not require special skills from the gardener, it is enough to simply follow all the necessary agricultural standards. The landing site should be sunny. An ideal option would be a slight elevation on a site where there is no groundwater and drafts.
Gruenkol prefers the soil loose, not acidic, with humus and ash.
When to sow kale cabbage for seedlings
Typically, this crop matures seventy to eighty days after emergence. Therefore, many gardeners do not grow seedlings at home, but immediately place the seeds in the ground under a film. Sowing is best done in late March or early April. The temperature for seed germination should be at least +6 degrees. Kale cabbage does not like transplants, therefore it is better to grow planting material immediately on a bed under a film shelter, and somewhere in the middle or end of April, to sprout seedlings. If summer residents do not have the opportunity to go to the site during these periods, then still have to grow seedlings at home. This can be done at the end of March. And already at the onset of favorable conditions, somewhere in the middle of May, it is necessary to land it in open ground.
Features of growing seedlings
Many people think that it is better to place seeds in special seedling cassettes with cells filled with a light substrate. After planting, you need to spill them well with warm water.
Pre-soaked kale cabbage seeds (2-3 pieces) are laid out in each cell and buried by about 1 cm. After the appearance of the first shoots, only one healthy sprout should be left in each cell. Care for seedlings should be as usual: regularly watering, lighting up seedlings with lamps, feeding and maintaining the temperature regime in the room within +15 ... 18 degrees. Kale seedlings do not like excessive moisture. It should be watered sparingly, otherwise seedlings can become infected with a black leg.
Landing
The garden should be in a sunny place. Before planting in the soil, it is necessary to add humus and mineral fertilizers. If the plot is acidic, then digging should additionally add wood ash. Heavy clay soils are lightened by rotted sawdust. Only after that, in May, already hardened seedlings are transferred to the garden. This is done as follows: an earthen lump with a seedling is gently squeezed out of the cells and transferred to the holes located on the bed at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other.
Seedlings are buried to the bottom leaf, the soil around the stems is compacted, and then the hole is spilled abundantly with settled water.
Watering and removing weeds
Kale cabbage is considered a very moisture-loving plant, so watering should be carried out in such a way that the land on the bed is constantly in a moderately wet state. Very useful and irrigation of plants with water heated in the sun. Sprouting from a watering can cabbage kale takes well. After each watering, aisles should be loosened, slightly hilling the stems. Mandatory measure - weed removal. To facilitate the maintenance of this cabbage, you can mulch the soil under the plants by adding a thick layer of straw or sawdust.
Top dressing
To leaf outlets were lush, feces must be periodically fertilized. The first top dressing is needed on the fifteenth day after transplanting seedlings into beds. For this, a urea solution is used. Three weeks later, a second feeding with mullein is carried out at a rate of 1:10. Kale three times a season requires fertilizer. The last time it is fed with a solution of nitrophosphate. This is done five weeks after transplanting seedlings. Feeding is best done in the late afternoon after watering, feeding one liter of a fertilizer for each root.
Pests, diseases
Kale cabbage is affected by the same ailments as its white-headed “sister”. When the first signs of such fungal diseases as keel, peronosporosis or powdery mildew appear, the bushes should be treated with a fungicide solution.
Heavily affected bushes are best removed from the general plantation. Succulent kale cabbage leaves like to attack caterpillars of the whites, aphids, cruciferous fleas and other harmful insects. You can get rid of them with the help of insecticides.
Harvest
Kale cabbage (depending on the variety) can be consumed already in the second or third month after the appearance of the first shoots. After the outlet reaches a height of 20-25 cm, you can already cut off the first leaves. Moreover, the younger the cabbage, the softer and tastier they are. Leaf cutting is best done early in the morning when they are saturated with moisture as much as possible. In the refrigerator, kale is stored for seven to eight days. In the frozen state, it does not lose its beneficial properties for almost six months.
But the best option for its use is to prepare a vitamin salad as soon as the leaves are picked.
Varieties
Among the varieties of kale cabbage there are varieties with wavy, terry and curly leaf plates. There are three types of this culture - undersized (up to 40 cm), medium-sized (40-60 cm) and tall (up to 90 cm) gruenkol. In addition, there is a division for the timing of the harvest: in the early, middle and late ripening varieties. Among the wide variety of feces, domestic gardeners choose those that grow well in our climatic conditions. Among them, the late ripe Redbor F1 hybrid, which produces delicious dark purple terry leaves, is especially distinguished. This variety, growing to 80 cm, has a high yield, cold resistance and decorativeness. In our country, Premier, Red, Scarlet, Reflex, etc. are also very popular.