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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-195
Sea Kale
Crambe maritima
Sea kale is a stout coastal perennial whose blanched spring shoots are eaten like asparagus, the classic way to grow it. The same plant also gives edible young leaves with a nutty flavor, starchy roots, and edible flower buds, so one clump produces several different harvests across the year. It thrives on poor, well-drained, salty ground and struggles more with wet clay than with any particular soil chemistry. Seed is slow and erratic to germinate, so growers typically start it from root cuttings or a bought crown rather than from seed.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6.5–8
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 30–36 in
- Mature spread
- 24–30 in
- Plant spacing
- 24 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
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Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
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African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
Alsike Clover fixes nitrogen in wet, acid ground too cold and heavy for red clover to thrive in, and its flowers keep bees working all season…
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Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
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Anise
Pimpinella anisum
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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