Kale and pumpkin

So, as predicted, I have fallen behind in updating the blog with some of the things that I have planted recently, and so here goes with a couple more.

Kale

Kale is a low-maintenance and flavourful brassica, which is flavourful and highly nutritious.

Starting

Sow in March for summer picking, and this can be continued to mid-July/August for autumn and winter harvesting. For full-size plants Kale should be sown approximately 18" apart, or as little as 4" apart if you want to treat the plant as a cut-and-come-again plant for salad leaves and such like.

Growing

As mentioned these are pretty low maintenance in terms of feeding, and looking after. They are slow to grown and are in peak condition for a long period of time, and so a few sowings should see you through the season nicely. You mainly need to be concerned with pests, especially cabbage moths. last year I suffered horrendous damage by bugs since I was not taking too much care over the plants. Not this year!

Harvesting

Pick leaves from the bottom up (oldest first) and if you are treating the plant as a cut-and-come-again these can be harvested when the leaves are only a couple of inches long and tossed straight into a salad. Expect to harvest 3-4 months from sowing. For example, I will be expecting to harvest my March-April sowings of kale in June/July.

Pumpkins and other squashes

Out of all of the vegetables I have grown in the past my absolute favourite has to be the Rouge Vif d'Etampes pumpkin. An extremely evocative plant for anyone who has been brought up with the Cinderella story, and makes for a great pie too (if memory serves correctly).

Starting

These generally tend to have a long growing season (the aforementioned Rouge Vif d'Etampes is 105 days) and like warm soil, so it is best to to start pumpkins indoors or undercover between March and May, and then planted out in June. It is recommended that the seed is placed on its edge to prevent rot, but I haven't had this issue (to the best of my knowledge) so far. When the seeds have 4 leaves or so they can be put out in the garden with a good scooping of compost when the soil has warmed up nicely. Summer squash can be planted 18-24" apart, and winter squash and pumpkins can be spaced a minimum of 36"-48". These are big plants.

Growing

As they are big plants they generally need lots of feeding too. As mentioned above, a cup of compost or organic fertilizer when transplanting the seedlings should do the trick.

All squash grow the male flowers first and then the female flowers. These are insect-pollinated, and incomplete pollination can occur at the beginning of the season. If misshapen fruit appear then it is best to discard these so that the energy of the plant can be put to better use. My biggest enemy when growing pumpkins previously was powdery mildew, so avoid wetting the foliage as much as possible (not always easy here on the West Coast), and water at the beginning of the day. You should also try to avoid having the pumpkin sit in damp too, and this can be accomplished using a brick, or a breeze block, for example.

Harvesting

Leave winter squash and pumpkins to to ripen for as long as possible. Apparently, a good test to see if they are ripe is if your thumbnail does not leave a mark, and also if the stem is dry and brown. For summer squash you need to pick when small, otherwise the plant will stop producing. One quick word about saving seeds. If you plant more than one squash variety then chances are the plants will cross-pollinate. The current plant will not be affected, but any seeds gathered from that plant may not produce fruit that resembles its parent. If you wish to save seeds then grow one variety at a time.