Last edited on November 01, 2026. View history
Borecole Kale
A variety of kale
How to sow borecole kale: Direct seed. If planting indoors, harden off before transplanting seedlings outside.
Sun requirement for borecole kale: Plant in Full Sun
A well-known classic kale that was common in New Zealand before the more modern American cultivars. Compact plants with dark green, healthy, open leaves and very curly edges. A strong sweet taste that is best after frost has been on the leaves, and putting it in the freezer overnight before cooking improves the flavour. Young leaves can go in mesclun salads. Sow in trays in late summer, autumn or early spring, prick out at 2.5 cm and transplant at 8 cm high at 40 cm diagonal spacing.
- 0
- plantings
- 0
- harvests
- 0
- seed packets
Borecole kale facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For borecole kale, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 690 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your borecole kale will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Plant borecole kale with
lemon balm
potato
radicchio
tomato
celtuce
german chamomile
Bonnie Little Bing Compact Cherry Tomato
Video
What people are saying about borecole kale
Nobody has posted about borecole kale yet.
Sign in or sign up to post your tips and experiences growing borecole kale.
Who's planted borecole kale
Nobody has planted this crop yet.
Sign in or sign up to track your borecole kale plantings.Borecole kale harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
Sign in or sign up to track your borecole kale harvests.Find borecole kale seeds
There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 60 to 85 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Brassica oleracea var. acephala L. [DC.]
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Capparales Cruciferae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -5 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | biennial, perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium, light, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about borecole kale
Resources outside Growstuff.
