Does anybody have any experience with raising collard greens on a commercial level? Days to maturity? Soil ph? ect.?

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 28, 2001

Answers

hmmm, first though, make sure you have enough customers. Collards- Bleah!

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), July 29, 2001.

By "commercial", would raising for the weekend garden farmers market count?

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 29, 2001.

Here west of Orlando there are minority neighborhoods where you can sell a pickup truck full with one stop. And yes collard greens are very popular here. I am thinking of 1 acre of just collards, plus the regular veggies for my own use.

It should be noted that collards are harvested by picking the mature leaves off the bottom of the plant rather than cutting off the tops. Collards will continue to grow well over 10 feet tall and yeild up to 30 "messes" of greens per plant with a "mess" being a 5 inch diameter group of rolled leaves.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 29, 2001.

Anybody interested, try an older variety called "Greasy Collards". They have shiney leaves and are my favorite. Some of mine even overwintered over two years straight. Then finally set seed and died. Nothing special with my soil, just a heavy red clay with some organic matter worked into it. I just call it southern broccoli as it has that simular cabbage family flavor and grows as prolific here in Arkansas as broccoli did when I lived and gardened in northern Michigan.

-- HermitJohn (Hermit@hilltop_homestead.zzn.com), July 29, 2001.