Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale Grex

Brassica oleracea var. ramosa
Also known as Perpetual Kale, Bush Kale, Branching Kale

$5.00

In stock

Description

Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale Grex is one of our most loved perennial vegetables and a cornerstone in our homestead gardens for easy food production, versatility and reliability. Their leaves are incredibly nutritious and delicious. Kale lovers’ appreciate their flavor and gardeners appreciate ease of cultivating this beautiful variety of perennial kale.

After growing Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale Grex for a few seasons we never went back to biennial kales because these kales are far easier to grow and are many times more productive.

This variety of perennial kale is extremely resilient to pests and disease. While it does attract whiteflies and aphids will eat it, this variety of perennial kale stands up extremely well to them and the plants never look weak or haggard despite the pest pressure. In fact they still appear vibrant and strong. Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale does extremely well in our hot, arid Mediterranean summers, even with less than ideal watering.

The plants are reliably cold hardy unprotected to zone 6, but overwintering in colder climates is quite possible. In fact our friend Michelle Bruhn in Minnesota (co-author of Small-Scale Homesteading) is growing Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale in zone 4b/5a and they grow back after winter! She cuts the plant to the ground and mulches it once freezing (below 10F) temperatures are regular. Folks in colder zones could probably extend Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale’s northern range using additional protection like green houses or low tunnels, in addition to cutting at the base and mulching.

Toward the other end of the temperate climate spectrum my parents grow Homesteader’s Perennial Kale Grex in their zone 10a Southern California gardens with much a hotter climate and longer seasons—their plants are thriving for several years now! I am guessing warmer zones are possible too, but I don’t have information on that at this time.

As a grex, Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale is genetically diverse and expresses a variety of different colors, leaf shapes and forms including greens, blue-greens, blues, purples, pinks and whites. Some of the colors, especially pink, appear much more vibrant in the colder winter and early spring months and fade somewhat in hotter weather.

Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale’s wide range of genetic diversity gives it more ability to thrive in a variety of climates, conditions and growing styles. Aesthetically it is more visually diverse than growing standard kale varieties, who usually have been bred to be quite uniform in color and thus genetics. The wide range of diverse genetics available in this variety allow it more flexibility and adaptability right off the bat, and then especially when gardeners save and re-plant seeds from the healthiest and best performing plants.

Homesteader’s Perennial Kale was bred by our good friend Chris Homanics of Head, Hands, Heart Nursery and Seed. In Chris’ own words:

“How did this project come to be? The bedrock of this project was provided by two historic perennial tree kales that seldom flower, ‘Purple Tree Collards’ and ‘Daubenton’. The story is complicated, but these kales were crossed to each other and other Pacific Northwest & West Coast perennial kales as well as a variety of other Brassica oleracea including Baltic Red Kale, Brassica oleracea montana, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, Red Cavalier Kale, savoy cabbage, Spis Bladene, Walking Stick Kale, and more. Their progeny have been inter-crossed, reselected, cloned, isolated, reselected, interbred — many times now since 2011. This process forms a grex. What is a ‘grex’ you may ask? Grex in Latin means ‘flock’ and originally comes from the orchid hybridization world. It essentially means a genetically diverse interbreeding mix. An apt moniker for seed stewardship generally, as we are shepherds who herd seeds forward into the world.

Since 2011, this grex has been extensively selected from thousands and thousands of plants to guide this diverse population toward a strongly perennial and bushy growth habit. Other rigorous selection considerations have been made as well. Drought resistance and dry-farm compatibility is very important to me, especially in a dramatically changing climate. In fact, this kale performs very well in many drier climates.”

Chris Homanics is breeding his Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale Grex in maritime North West Washington where summers are more temperate than our climate here in inland Southern Oregon. Yet because he carefully selected plants that expressed strength, resilience, drought tolerance, strong production and beauty in a variety of adverse conditions, the perennial kale plants are well suited to grow in gardens of many diverse climates, soil profiles and other conditions. We see this holding true in our garden and far beyond.

We’ve been growing perennial kale and saving seeds since Chris first shared seeds with us back in 2019. The seeds we offer were selected from a moderate population of plants grown in our homestead gardens in inland Southern Oregon. We’ve been adding new seedlings to our population each season both from Chris’ seeds as well as from the perennial kale plants that go to seed in our gardens.

The seeds we are offering come from perennial kale plants who thrive in our gardens in variety of soil conditions ranging from fertile to marginal, and who thrive in our hot summers. Our climate is hot and arid in the summer through fall and—in aligning with Chris’ spirit and vision regarding resilience and drought tolerance—my long term plan includes navigating our homestead’s population of perennial kale plants towards even more drought, cold and stress tolerance, as well as tolerance of thin, marginal soils and part-shade, part-sunny conditions.

Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale Grex is released under the OSSI (Open Source Seed Initiative) license to protect this important genetic material from large multinational seed conglomerates that might seek to patent or otherwise control it. So, select out your favorite unique perennial kales and share with friends. The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) pledge states: “You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict other’s use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.” More information on OSSI can be found at osseeds.org.

We are so excited to share Homesteader’s Kaleidescopic Perennial Kale seeds with you!

Please let us know how the perennial kale plants do in your garden! We’d love to see photos if you notice any particularly beautiful or resilient plants.

Want to learn more about Perennial Kale in the garden and kitchen? Check out our free comprehensive homesteader’s plant profile on Perennial Kale.

Details

Lifecycle: Perennial
Lifespan: 3-5+ years
Hardiness zones: 6-10+ (USDA)
Habitats: Not known in the wild
Plant size: 3 ft wide x 5 ft tall (when flowering)
Light: Full sun to part shade
Soil: All soils, well draining, fertile / loam preferred
Water: Prefers moist soil, can handle some drought
Seeds per packet: 65+ seeds

Seed Starting

I typically start new perennial kale plants in a flat in February (or whenever you start brassicas in your climate) and in the spring I will prick them out and plant them in their final location or pot them up to 1 or 2 gallon pots to be planted in the fall.

Perennial kale is also very easy to direct sow in a well prepared bed. You just need to keep it well watered and weeded while they are establishing.

Cultivation

As a busy homesteader, my primary goal is to keep the plants alive in their first season as they establish, while harvesting a modest amount of leaves. In year two the kale’s roots are fully established and it starts branching numerous side branches or stalks, each containing many leaves. We harvest leaves and stalks continuously up until summer when the plants flower and set seed.

In the late summer / early fall we prune out the seed stalks and new leaf growth starts again in the cooler weather. Year two and three are where you can expect large yields. In our climate, the plants typically live for 3 seasons before fizzling out that winter. Left unmanaged, the trunk gets huge by the end of two and then rots out after year three. But you can coppice them to the ground in early winter after year two or three and they will likely re-sprout new trunks. I suspect they will continue living for some more years if you continue to manage them that way.

I also enjoy taking the seed stalks and scattering seeds throughout our garden where they volunteer plentifully in random places so that the perennial kale plants can grow semi-wild and tell us where and how they prefer to grow. Cultivating perennial kale this way we always have a mixture of 1, 2 and 3 year old plants throughout our garden during any given season and they all yield a massive amount of leaves that our family has a hard time keeping up with!

Harvest

In mild climates harvest is year round. In climates with hot summers the leaves are sweetest in fall through spring, but we still enjoy harvesting leaves through the summer from year old plants. For plants older than one year, energy is directed to flowers stalks during the summer and leaf production is mostly halted until seeds are produced.

In 2nd and 3rd year kale plants branching commences and each branch grows leaves. I like to thin the branches for airflow and take the whole branch and leaves into the kitchen for a meal.

As the plants begin to flower in early summer the young closed flower buds and the tender portion of the flower stalk can be harvested as mini broccoli florets, or similar to chinese broccoli. Harvest the flower stalk no lower than where it snaps cleanly when bent. Lower than that and the skin will be a bit fibrous.

Kale seeds can be harvested for food after the seed heads have dried up. Kale seeds can be used as a slightly larger, slightly less spicy mustard seed.

Propagation

Favorite Perennial Kale plants can also be propagated by cutting the side branches and sticking them in the soil or nursery pots and keeping them moist while the roots start growing. They root easily on their own! I find the best time to do this is in the cooler months of fall, winter and spring. You can clone almost unlimited number of kale plants this way and have a never ending supply of kale leaves!

Whether you propagate perennial kale by seed, cutting, or both, its easy to get them going and soon you’ll have more perennial kale than you can shake a stick at!

Seed Saving

Harvest entire seed stalks once the pods have dried up. Take care because the pods shatter easily. Thresh (crush) the seed pods, screen the seeds and winnow if cleaner seed is desired.

 

Additional information

Weight0.007 lbs
Dimensions4.5 × 3.25 × .05 in

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