Doug Kanter wrote:

Lia, I planted kale indoors and outdoors in early April. Both sprouted in
under a week. These were Burpee seeds, ordered directly from the company.
You might want to do the same. Perhaps your seeds were mishandled before
they were sold. What kind were they?

Although it's getting kind of hot for growing kale right now, you can shade
them easily. Buy some dark colored window screen the suspend it over the
seedlings with sticks or whatever works. Plastic clothes pins are good for
this.


It is possible that the seeds were mishandled, but I'm leaning towards
an explanation that has to do with the cold wet weather. I threw away
the packet so I can't tell you the brand name, but it was the same as
the peas and radishes. It could have been Burpee or one of the other
well known brands. What's the right temperature for growing kale? The
temps are getting up into the 70s in the day and down to the 50s at
night now, but earlier it was only getting as high as 50 in the day.


This may all be a moot point. I needed the space and put a basil and 2
tomatoes in some of the space previously devoted to kale.


Now I'll change the subject and ask the question I ask every year. Does
anyone have any new ideas on how to defeat the squash vine borer? Last
year I gave up on the organic tricks (tin foil on the soil, netting) and
decided to fight dirty. I used poison, and the buggers STILL destroyed
my plants before I got a single squash. I started wanting zucchini,
then switched to waltham butternut because I understood it was borer
resistant. Hah! They're planted in a half barrel filled with soil from
the garden center. You'd think I give up, but each year I think of how
lovely it would be to have home-grown squash and get optimistic again.


--Lia