Daubenton's Kale, or 'Chou d'Aubenton': Perennial cabbage

Has anyone here heard of this (Daubenton's Kale), or had experience of growing it? A friend in France recently gave me a couple of plants. It's like a kale only it is perennial. It makes lots of side shoots and the ones at the base all start making roots. You can take any of the sideshoots and root them as cuttings, or even easier take off the ones with roots for an instant kale plant. Apart from pulling off any flower shoots which form (I'm told the plant is sterile anyway and won't form seed) I'm told it will grow into a big plant.
As we love kale I'm hoping I can make lots of plants from it, but not sure how to overwinter it or whether it will go on for ever. Any suggestions how much space to give it in a square foot garden?
Apart from perennial broccoli, which isn't really perennial in this way, are there any other perennial vegetables like this. I'd never heard of this one until I was given it and researched it on the Internet.

Here is a blog post I found on it. Looks like the plant takes up a 3 x 3 foot area. http://perennial-food-crops.blogspot.com/

Hi Bertie,

I imagine by now, almost a year after your post, you've discovered all sorts of perennial vegetables. I was doing some online research today and found this short article with a nice list of hardy perennials, http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/survival-gardening/survival-garden/

This is where I first heard about Chau Duabenton Kale. I am interested in hearing more about your experiences cultivating this kale and wondering if you would be willing to share a cutting with me as I can't find any domestic source for it.

Thanks,
Sue

Hi Sue,
Thanks for the link to the perennial vegetable site. Is it already a year since I posted that message about Chou d'Aubenton?
I made lots of plants during the summer and of course they are just beginning to produce loads of young shoots now, at a time when there is virtually nothing else in the garden. The plants do take up about three square feet and make bushes rather than single stemmed plants. I took a couple of dozen shoots in February and have rooted them up well already in the polytunnel. I should add that the taste and texture is very good, better than other kales I grow, but you need a lot of shoots to make a large helping.
I would be very happy to send you a cutting but as we are in France I don't know how long it would take or whether the cutting would survive. If you want to give me the details of where to send it I'd be happy to try and send it airmail.
There may be closer sources as I found this extensive thread all about Chou d'Aubenton on the Home Grown website at:
http://alanbishop.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=brassica&action=display&thread=4341

I'm currently trying out making some other things 'perennial' and I've found that brussels sprouts shoots from the main stem soon form roots in vermiculite with a little bottom heat. If I take any flowers off I'm hoping it might make a new sprouts plant, but perhaps that's being a bit optimistic!
Regards,
Bertie Fox

Dear Bertie,
Living, like you, in France one of my neighbours told me about the existence of chou d'Aubenton. I am not sure if it really originates is the town of Aubenton where i buy my daily bread, but i really would like to grow it in my garden. Judging from your experience i might, with some patience, even be able to make enough to bring it back to its possible hometown. Would you consider to sent me some planting material when the time is right? I dont know where in France you live but judging from all the postorder plant catalogues they should be able to survive. Of course i will refund the cost and will also gladly pay you for the plant(s). If you don't believe they will survive a travel by mail maybe you can point me in the right direction for some planting material.
Thank you for your reply.
Maris

I will be more than happy to send you some cuttings in spring. I will do some more cuttings in late winter and they should be well rooted by March or April.
Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton was the French naturalist who discovered it and propagated it I believe, in the 18th century, or it might have been his cousin, also a naturalist.
You can buy cuttings at Jacques Bryant in France, but I can easily send you some. I sent some to somebody in Italy last year and they arrived in good condition.
Let me know where to send them some time in the New Year and I will post them off.
We have currently three or four main plants of this, one spreading over five feet and it is a wonderful source of fresh greens, especially at the moment with the mild weather.
The main plants tend to die out after a year or so, so you have to keep it going with fresh cuttings each year to be safe.

Bertie,

Thanks for a very informative post , I live in the UK , our Customs and Excise people etc. allow plants in from elswhere with in the EEC.

May I also avail myself to your kind offer and also pay for the plant inc P&P .

Do you use PayPal ??

That's ok, Plantoid, I will add you to the list. Actually while it is mild and they are still growing well I might try getting some cuttings rooted in the greenhouse right now, as they root so easily.
I have got Pay Pal so as long as you refund my postage when I've sent them that will be fine.
Let me have your address in due course and I will get them off to you asap.

dear Bertie,
So it is not the towns name, but a botanist. Thank you for the background information.My adress is ADDESS REMOVED by staff. I am looking forward to the chou daubenton and will send you the money or a cheque if you prefer.
Kind regards,
Maris

I put a dozen or so shoots in the polytunnel about ten days ago and they seem to be surviving and hopefully rooting ok in a heated propagator. I hope they will root fairly quickly given the mild weather and with luck I can post them off in early spring, depending how much root growth they've made. I think they should survive ok in the post for a couple of days as I sent some to someone in Italy and that worked, though the top growth had gone a bit yellow.
This winter has been really good for harvesting it as with the mild weather they have produced lots of new growth at a time when there is relatively little green leafy stuff in the garden, apart from sprouts.

I would like to suggest that any personal information, such as email phone numbers or physical addresses be sent back and forth by PM (private message - shows in the green bar at the top of the page).

Posts here can be read by members, visitors and search engines.

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Thanks FM.

FM is correct; for your own protection: no addresses or phone numbers in public; share them via PM.

We haven't had a problem with email harvesters. Alan posts his email frequently, and I have had two test dummy accounts where I post my emails. I haven't gotten any spam. Use your own discretion on emails.

Message to both Maris and Plantoid.
The Daubenton cuttings are available now (got really set back by the extremely cold winter, even in the polytunnel) but I have a dozen or so cuttings now well rooted. I have a French address for Maris (02500 post code) but none for Plantoid. If Plantoid would like to PM me his address then I will post a couple of cuttings to him too.

Bertie .. where are you ????

Good news the cuttings have actually survived the French and British postal system despite travelling over Easter as well .

I check today and the plants are about 2 inches ( 50 mm) tall with several 1/2 inch ( 12.5 mm ) leaves.( they lookalmost like baby coconut palms )

I'll take cuttings as soon as possible so I have 100 % new plants .

Let me have your address etc ...I owe you some tea etc.

Hello all -

I'm brand new here, I found this forum and this post after doing some googling about Daubenton's kale or Chou D'Aubenton. Kale is my favorite garden plant, I really love kale! I was completely stunned to learn that there actually is a PERENNIAL kale out there! Wow!

I would love to get my hands on some Daubenton's Kale - but, as near as I can tell it's completely unavailable in the USA.

Has this kale done well for you folks? Anyone out there growing this in the US?

Thanks! Nice to meet all of you.

Here in the UK ... when I got the cuttings they had all but died having been incarserated in the French and british postal systems for a goor 12 days .
I washed them off in warm slightly salted water , trimmed of the sources of the green slime . re washed o=in a clean solution and dipped the cutting in rooting powder. They were then put directly in the veg bed and given a weak feed of tomato feed . eventually the three cutting I was able to rescure started to grow.
last year the levels of sunlight and temperatures for growing were absolutly dismal .
It rained all year to almost setting a new UK record ( 9 mm ... 3/8 inch short )
Almost every brassica struggled to grow .
The kale however made slow steady growth , I had to sort out the slug slob fest with lots of blue slug pellets . We were innundated with them . they did get to the kale but didn't do as much damage as they did to the rest of the brassicas
I've not had any harvest yet they are only 10 inches or so tall and a bit like a treee branching out .

I'm going to take new cuttings this year .... for new growth is the secret of success for most soft plants . I'll try to grow the existing kale on to harvest for I like the sound of the sharp bitter tasting greenery .

I also want to see just how many years I can grow it before the original plants have to make the final journey to the compost bin . Bertie said about three , so I'll need back up cuttings each year just to cover all bases against terminal disease or pest damage..

I like this idea of perennial veggies, Plantoid. Yet another one to add to the 'must find' list. Please post photos when you get some.

I guess in the SFG we would add compost around the plant once the ground is workable, is that what you do?

CC

I've added some of the manure based composts and also added a 3 gallon bucket full of chopped up comfrey leaves , once they wilted down I gently turned them in the ground by the plants which are growing in mother natures own soil instead of in MM

This was done because they appear to have a need of a massive root system to anchor them when they get to a metre high . I also don't want to tie up a whole nine sq feet of my MM beds for one plant for three years or more.

i am looking for cuttings of a perenial kale called cottagers kale or taunton
deane kale also called daubenton kale does anybody have some i can get cuttings
of or know where i can get it
i am in stoke on trent in the uk

i am looking for cuttings of a perenial kale called cottagers kale or
taunton deane kale also called daubenton kale does anybody have some i can
get cutting of or know where i can get it

PM on the way to you from me .

Bertie, it's cheeky, but do you have any other cuttings you could send to me in the UK - I'd happily pay postage etc.. I'm a a great Tuscan kale fan and would love to give this a go.

Merci d'avance, Phil

Phil,
I have recently taken a slack handful of cuttings of the kale and used rooting compound on them . they are in the heaterd mist bed in my glashouse . earlier this evening I pulled out a cutting out .. the caqlus has formed and micro roots look to be present .
Keep an eye on this thread in about three weeks time & I'll let all you guys & gals know the score as to If I can supply you with a couple .

For tea tonight we each had a couple of branches of it boiled for 7 min in boiling water and drained , rough mashed spuds no bitter alone with open dish braised chicken & onions in chicken soup . Deeeeelicioius

Here are some pictures of the kale it grown on a skeleton similar to that of a bunch grapes only it is much thicker , the leaf is in a sort of loose floret.
The leaves in this top picture are about five inches long ( 125 mm ) , when it is cut off the floret has about eight leaves .


This is one of the bigger plants it is about two feet tall by two feet wide .


This one is the cuttings in the heated misting bed .

i used to grow this in my last house down south it grew in ordinary soil i never did anything with as i was not into gardening then i used to take new cuttings every yr and just put the in water till they grew roots. when i left i did not take any with me as i went abroad i have been trying to find out what it was called ever since then i saw it in gardeners world mag now i am looking forward with antisipation to getting some.