On Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:37:54 -0700, RF wrote:

Last year I grew about fifteen Lacinato or
Dinosaur kale plants in 16" pots and had a good
crop. I ate them regularly 3-4 times/week for
about 9 months.

This year I removed the plants from the pots and
it seems that the roots are only a
fraction the size of the pots - about 6-8"
diameter- suggesting that there are still lots of
nutrients in the old soil.

Last year I bought all the potting soil and now
I'm preparing to plant again and wondering if some
of the old soil could be re-used this year with
the new potting soil. Has anyone tried this before?

I now have a batch of 10 - week-old seedlings
ready for transplanting. The previous plants had
no diseases and the only bothersome things were
whitefiles and white butterflies. I live in north
California.

Comments appreciated.

This is a specific UK newsgroup and I don't think many people in UK
grow kale in pots. I'd love to try but we can't get that variety
over here. I looked on a web site and it was 3 dollars for the seed
and 6 dollars for postage!
I don't think you'll get such good results with old compost. Why not
try an experiment, grow some in old and some in new compost.

Pam in Bristol