Winter was not kind to the Sutherland kale, or any kale I had in my greenhouse. It has died back to about four inches above the roots where it’s pushing out two weakly sprouts.
Of course I’ll leave it to recover, but I can’t leave the dead top on. My parents want the space. So I removed it yesterday, and it was certainly harder stemmed than I would have guessed. You’d think a hard stab with a shovel would do the deed but, hardly tearing, it deflected blow to the side and the handle to the side of my head.
Calculating by the pain in my head, I considered getting an axe. That being further away than I wanted to walk I just whittled the thing off with my pocket knife. The texture was like a spongy balsam wood.
More exciting is that last fall the whole plant leaned down and began crawling across the ground with very thin, tentacle-like branches, one of which I’m quite sure rooted.
The plant simply has too adult looking of leaves for such a stump of a stem to have come from seed. I never saw any seed made anyway. If it had come up from seed, it would have a longer stem, and a sign of younger leaves I think. I did find a few other spots where the kale has rooted but not survived the winter. So I know it could have rooted.
Whoever the parent, clone or otherwise, I transplanted it since the whole place is being renovated for spring. I’ll update with both plants’ development in the near future.
Mortal Tree 