Collard greens
Vegetable · cool season · also called collard
When to plant
- Start seeds indoors about 6 weeks before planting out.
- Plant outdoors about 4 weeks before your average last spring frost.
- It can also be grown as a fall crop, timed back from your first fall frost.
- Ready to harvest about 60 days after planting out.
Handles heat and cold. Pick lower leaves as needed.
Frost dates depend on where you live. Enter your ZIP code to get exact dates.
Dates by zone: 3a 3b 4a 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b 10a 10b
Growing basics
- Sun
- Part sun (4–6 hours)
- Spacing
- 18 in
- Soil temperature
- At least 45°F
- Time to harvest
- About 60 days
- Containers
- At least 5 gallons
- Plant family
- Cabbage family (brassicas)
- Harvest per plant
- About 2 lb
- Seeds keep
- About 4 years
Companions
Keep apart: the tomato family (nightshades). Cabbage-family crops and tomatoes compete and can stunt each other.
Keep apart: Horseradish. Horseradish spreads aggressively. Give it its own spot.
Keep apart: Strawberry (June-bearing), Strawberry (everbearing). Cabbage-family crops can stunt strawberries.
Keep apart: Mint. Mint spreads aggressively into neighbors. Keep it in a pot.
Keep apart: Fennel (bulb). Fennel slows the growth of most garden plants. Grow it on its own.
Keep apart: Sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke). Sunchokes spread aggressively and shade neighbors.
Pests and problems
Grow it well
Tips
- Pick greens from the outside in. Take the outer leaves of lettuce, kale, chard, and collards, and leave the center to keep growing. One planting keeps giving for weeks.
- Cover crops before the bugs find them. Put row cover or insect netting over cabbage, kale, and other greens the day you plant. It keeps out cabbage moths and flea beetles with no spraying at all.
- Move crop families every year. Pests and diseases build up in the soil. Don't plant tomatoes where tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, or eggplant grew last year: they're one family and share the same problems.
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