Green vegetables like kale come with tons of medicinal properties. These include nutrients that can help in keeping the sugar levels of your body under control. Additionally, the plant helps in keeping your blood pressure at stable levels while also preventing dangerous diseases. This makes kale a great vegetable but on top of this, you should note that it also has a delicious taste. Due to these facts, the plant is often used as a base ingredient in most recipes.
You will even notice people planting it in their homes. This is because having the vegetable in your garden ensures that it can be kept under control at all times. The observation helps in getting a much better taste when compared with vegetables bought from stores. With that being said, recently some users have been reporting that their kale seedlings are getting leggy. If you are also getting the same issue, then going through this article should help you in understanding everything about it as well as how it can be avoided.
Kale Seedlings Leggy
When growing kale in your home, some people might notice that the seedlings have gotten leggy. These are usually plants that form a thin, long stem on them that stretches toward a specific direction. This can be quite annoying to look at as the vegetable will grow a lot taller for no apparent reason. However, you should note that the main reason behind this is that your kale is trying to reach out to the sun. When growing green vegetables like kale, keeping its requirements in mind is an important step.
Talking about this, the plant requires at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight every day to stay healthy and grow new leaves. If you have the seedlings planted in a spot where it is not able to catch the light required, then they will start forming long legs. These help the seedlings in getting the sunlight required to grow new leaves and keep themselves healthy. Keeping this information in mind, you can see that the direction that your seedlings are stretching towards will usually be a source of light and heat.
If you are someone who finds this annoying, then some simple steps can be used to prevent the issue. It should already be quite obvious that the best way to keep your kale seedlings from getting leggy is by keeping them in a spot where they can get sunlight easily. If you don’t have a place like this in your garden, then you can also try keeping the plant in partial shade. As long as it is getting sunlight a few hours a day, the stems should start forming new flowers without having to stretch out.
Other than this, people can also plant the seedlings inside small pots that can then be placed under direct light. You can then wait a few weeks for the seedlings to grow out into small plants and then switch them into your soil. Aside from this, people can also try substituting the number of nutrients required by the plant. When talking about this, the amount of water that you use, and the condition of the soil play a huge role in how healthy the vegetable will be. You have to ensure that sufficient water is poured over the leaves daily as this is necessary for them to grow and prevent any bolting.
The wet soil also helps the plant in absorbing the nutrients contained in the soil. These can then be used as a replacement in case your kale is not receiving sufficient sunlight. In case you have your plant in a spot where the condition of the soil is not good, you should use fertilizers. These are bags of soil that have been mixed with healthy nutrients that can keep the leaves of your kale strong. If used while the vegetable is still a seedling then this can also prevent it from getting leggy.
Just make sure that you purchase the fertilizers from a reliable brand as this helps in ensuring that it can last you a long time. The product also comes in several variants, which contain chemicals that can also keep your kale safe from insects and pests. If you have issues like these in your garden, then purchasing fertilizers mixed with pesticides can be a better option.