Saving Kale Seeds

yolos 4/23/2015, 11:30 am

My overwintered Winterbor Kale seeds bolted and I left it in the garden to attract the bees. That is working great. But then I decided I wanted to save the kale seeds to replant this fall. I could not figure out where the seeds were on the flower stalks so I did some research. This is the best pictures I could find and thought I would share.

http://woodridgehomestead.com/2010/06/26/saving-seeds-from-kale/

Note that brassicas cross pollinate so you have to only let one type of brassicas flower if you want to save seeds.

CapeCoddess 4/23/2015, 3:19 pm

Yolos, I save kale and collards seeds all the time. The plants will flower in year 2 and then make the most wonderful seeds pods all along a long stem. When the pods are hard and brown I collect them, crack them open and then I have lots of seeds. I've been looking for Winterbor. Want to do a trade? If so, PM me please?

CC

yolos 4/23/2015, 5:52 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:Yolos, I save kale and collards seeds all the time. The plants will flower in year 2 and then make the most wonderful seeds pods all along a long stem. When the pods are hard and brown I collect them, crack them open and then I have lots of seeds. I've been looking for Winterbor. Want to do a trade? If so, PM me please?

CC

Yea, when I got home from work and looked at my kale plants, I did notice the pods. I kept looking at the dead flowers and expected to see some seeds. I did not realize that at the back end of the flower was a long pod. Now that I know what I have, I have to make a decision about whether to keep the space occupied with kale in order to get the seeds or whether to pull up the plant to plant some squash. Maybe I can find somewhere else to plant the squash. Or, I could save one plant and then plant the squash around the flowering kale.

There is only one person in our household who eats kale (kale chips) and she only likes the winterbor kale. So, no thank you, I do not want to do a trade. But if I decide to leave them to grow out, I will save some seeds for you even without a trade.

**sanderson** 4/23/2015, 11:50 pm

Yolos, Nice, clear tutorial.

Nicola 4/24/2015, 12:41 am

Wow, thanks for the reminder.
I let the pods form and dry on the plants last year, then kind of forgot all about them--have to check when I get up to see if I'll have a lot of volunteer Kale, or if I still have pods to harvest.

Windmere 4/24/2015, 10:34 am

Thanks for this information. I've got some kale ready to do this. I'm not sure I want to let go of the "real estate" occupied by my kale go for seeds. I have to options to weigh though!

CapeCoddess 4/24/2015, 3:47 pm

Windmere wrote:Thanks for this information. I've got some kale ready to do this. I'm not sure I want to let go of the "real estate" occupied by my kale go for seeds. I have to options to weigh though!

The pod stems get really tall, Windmere, and you only need one plant and one stem of pods since there are around a dzn seeds in each pod and dzns of pods on one stem. At least this is the case in the ones I've harvested. You could cut the other stems off and have lots of space to plant under it.

CC

FamilyGardening 4/24/2015, 7:18 pm

our Kale pods last June 2014....the kale stock starts right at that little pink plastic flower.....I wish it was a better pic....but the pods almost look like green beans....we left ours on the stems until the pods were starting to turn brown......don't wait to long to move them once they start to dry out as the pods break open really easy and spill out!

Saving Kale Seeds Dscf1035

here they are on the top of the metal shelf in the green house drying Very Happy

hopes this helps Very Happy

Rose

Windmere 4/24/2015, 11:22 pm

Thanks for those tips CC and Rose. You've inspired me to focus on this project!

mschaef 4/25/2015, 10:55 am

Thanks for the great information on saving kale seeds. I might have to think about saving some this year.

CapeCoddess 4/23/2016, 4:55 pm

Has anyone ever harvested Tuscan / Dinosaur kale seeds? Mine didn't winter over last year and I'm wondering if there's a secret to it. Maybe they need more protection than the other kales?

CC

countrynaturals 4/29/2020, 10:01 am

Last year, my Lima beans over-ran one of my kale beds. My solution was to transplant the kale. One of them wound up in the butterfly host garden, where it did just fine. Then I forgot about it, while getting everything else ready for spring -- otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Rolling Eyes

Yesterday, I noticed the plant had produced seed pods -- similar to what radish plants produce. Now I'm on a mission to save the seeds.

As usual, a little deep diving produced this informative thread, so now I'm off and running. The variety I'm saving is dwarf curly. What an adventure is gardening! geek

OhioGardener 4/29/2020, 10:26 am

CapeCoddess wrote:Has anyone ever harvested Tuscan / Dinosaur kale seeds? Mine didn't winter over last year and I'm wondering if there's a secret to it. Maybe they need more protection than the other kales?

Did you allow the seeds to mature on the stem before harvesting them? If they were taken out of the pods too soon, they will likely not be viable. As the pods start to turn from green to beige, cut off the seed stalks close to the ground with the pods intact. Put the stalks upside down in a grocery paper bag, tie the bag shut and hang it to dry the stalks - this takes about 3 weeks, or so. Then take down the bag and slap the sides to cause the pods to snap open and disperse the seeds. Collect the seeds from the bottom of the bag and store them a paper envelope in the vegetable crisper drawer of the refrigerator.

lvanderb 4/29/2020, 2:20 pm

I've only ever had Red Russian kale set seeds - dinosaur/black kale has not overwintered for me. However, we did have a mild winter and I had dwarf curly kale overwinter as well as collard greens - so I'm expecting some seeds there.

Linda

Emily49 5/6/2020, 2:41 pm

Just the thread I was looking for today! Thank you!!

Emily49 5/25/2020, 2:25 pm

These seed pods are almost ready to pick off the plant. I have kale and cabbage next to each other, did they cross pollinate? I have kale seedlings I didn’t think I planted, where did they come from?

lvanderb 5/25/2020, 9:04 pm

If you have kale seedlings that you didn't plant, then last year, one of your kale plants, at least one, went to seed and then this year you got free kale seedlings.

Today I went a bit nuts and cut down all but 2 or 3 of my about to flower kale - took out all the collard greens... wanted some room in my garden!

Linda

Emily49 5/26/2020, 4:41 pm

lvanderb wrote:If you have kale seedlings that you didn't plant, then last year, one of your kale plants, at least one, went to seed and then this year you got free kale seedlings.

That's what's weird, last year is the first year I put kale in. Maybe it was a seed that for some reason didn't germinate? The worst is that it isn't growing in the middle of a square! the nerve!

markqz 5/28/2020, 11:02 pm

Hmm. Are radish and kale closely enough related so that they crossbreed? I was thinking I was going to have lots of dino kale seeds, but realized that it was flowering at the same time as radish, which I was also letting go to seed. There was only one or two radish plants, and a lot of dino kale.

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