10 Types of Kale and How to Grow Them at Home

Kale is one popular, highly nutritious cruciferous (Brassica napus or Brassica oleracea) vegetable. It has been pitted against spinach as the healthiest green around, and it has become a staple vegetable in the produce sections of supermarkets.

Kale shows up in all sorts of gourmet dishes, from pasta and salads to fried rice and miso soup. OGP even has a brownie recipe with kale in it! It works raw in salads, does well braised, can be flash sautéed, or holds up in stews.

We like it for the protein. We like it for the fiber. We are blown away by the Vitamin K and Vitamin A, with more than a dollop of Vitamin C and magnesium to go with them. It also comes with 45 flavonoids, a couple of carotenoids, and anti-cancer compounds.

But, that’s not even considering all the different types of kale with have at our disposal, both as gardeners and as cooks. It has been cultivated for thousands of years now, so we have a lot of colors, textures, and shapes to play with. Lucky us!

1. Curly Kale (Scots Kale)

Ideal for making kale chips because its curls crisp up nicely in the process, curly kale is easy to find in supermarkets and farmers’ markets.

It can be grown in USDA Climate zones 2-11, with spring and autumn plantings in USDA Zones 2-10 and autumn plantings in Zone 11. The mature leaves will go a bit bitter in summer, so pick them as baby kale.

2. Lacinato Kale (Tuscan Kale)

An heirloom variety from Italy, Lacinato kale has very dark leaves that are solid oblongs rather than curly or dainty in any way. It’s good for kale chips but excels being roasted, steamed, or sautéed.

Lacinato kale can be grown as a perennial plant in Zones 7-10, or it can work as an annual in Zone 2-6 due to cold and in Zone 11 due to heat. It grows to be between a foot and two-and-a-half feet tall and wide.

3. Red Russian Kale

Recognized as a sweet and tender variety, red Russian kale is an heirloom with softer greens than other kales. This makes the red Russian an ideal choice for use in salads and for harvesting baby kale.

It should be sown in early spring and again in late summer or early autumn. Like all kale, it does best in cooler weather.

4. Premier Kale (Early Hanover Kale)

Respected as potentially the best-flavored kale, premier kale is vigorous and compact with dark green leaves that scallop around the edges. The young greens are great for salads and sandwiches while the mature greens are ideal for cooking.

Premier kale can have a spring and autumn sowing, and it is known for not bolting as quickly in the heat as other varieties of kale.

5. Siberian Kale

A member of the Brassica napus tribe of kale, Siberian kale is actually more closely related to turnips than it is to curly kale or Lacinato. Its leaves are known to be more tender, and it is more often eaten raw than cooked.

Siberian kale can withstand cold temperatures, but as with a cold-hardy green grown for winter harvest, the plants need to be well-established before the frosts come in.

6. Redbor Kale

Beloved for its purple-burgundy leaves that provide a contrasting color into the leafy green mix, Redbor kale can serve as an ornamental plant just as readily as it can be served as a nutritious one. It works well eaten fresh, but it also makes great chips or steamed greens.

This variety stays really small (20 inches and under), so it might be the right choice for container gardens.

7. Chinese Kale (Gai Lan)

Also known as Chinese broccoli, Chinese kale or gai lan resembles broccoli as a plant, but it has a much sweeter flavor and we eat the leaves. But, it is from the kale family.

This variety tolerates heat much better than others do, and it can also grow in the cold, over-wintering in many areas. It stays very small, particularly the varieties with yellow flowers.

8. Sea Kale

Not actually kale at all, sea kale (Crambe maritima) is a member of the cruciferous vegetable family; however, it is only a distant relative of kale. In fact, there are 37 varieties of sea kale alone.

Sea kale does best in salty soils along the coast, but it has made a surge into the garden of late. It is recognized as a wild plant that’s winter-hardy and partially evergreen.

9. Portuguese Kale (Tronchuda)

Tender in texture and mild in flavor, Portuguese has full, paddle-shaped leaves that tend to be deep green-to-blue. It forms a loose head that can get to be about 18 inches tall. This one is great for juicing and putting in smoothies.

Portuguese kale is one of the more heat-tolerant varieties, so it puts out harvests for a bit longer than some of the others. Harvests can begin when the plant develops half a dozen large leaves.

10. Walking Stick Kale (Jersey Kale)

It has more names: Tall Jacks or Cow Cabbage. This is perhaps the most whimsical of the kales because it grows to be very tall, like 12 feet tall. The leaves form up nearly the top of the plant as it grows, and the young leaves make good food for humans. (This one is often grown for livestock.)

The “walking stick” name comes from the fact that these long-stemmed kale plants eventually flop down at the top to create a curve, cane-like stem. They are actually used to make canes.

So, that’s just scratching the surface of what we can do and the types of kale we can grow. Isn’t that amazing? It seems a shame not to grow at least a few varieties in the garden at home.

Related Content:

• Food Face-Off: Health Benefits of Kale vs. Spinach
• 15 Delicious and Nutritious Kale Salads
• Popular Types of Kale and Their Health Benefits
• Kale Chips: Health Benefits, Product Recommendations and Recipes!
• The Health Benefits of an Alkaline Plant-Based Diet (with Recipes!)

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