Agree with Dan but if you aren't going to eat them or can them or freeze them for use later - they do both beautifully - then there is no point in keeping them around. Use the space for growing something useful to you.

Dave

I grow collards as ornamentals. I have no intention of ever eating then, although we occasionally do. I've one we left over from last year. It is about five feet tall and tiny yellow birds just love it. ETA: Lesser
Goldfinch Spinus sensu stricto.

Thanks for the responses everyone! I think I'm going to put them back on the care rotation if they're still able to produce good leaves in the summer time. I just assumed that they'd get bitter so I was waiting for seeds only, but it sounds like I can still have the best of both worlds. I'll have to keep an eye out for little song birds- we have a handful of common species in the neighborhood that like lettuce seeds so perhaps they'll want some collard seeds too.

I just put a whole chopped collard leaf (about a square foot) into a big omelet I made tonight. Excellent. What's especially nice about collards as a summer green is that they don't wilt in the high heat. I have to pick chard early, or soak it in water for a while to get it to crisp up. I can go out and pluck a collard leaf at the end of a 100F afternoon, and it's crisp and delicious. This is the first time that I've tried to keep collards going in high summer. I'm impressed.

I should say that it is well known that collard flavor is somewhat enhanced by frost. Not that I'll be looking at any frost for six months or more.

Gosh, it's just a couple of months till I put in new ones for next year. Anyone try to grow them as perennials? It is rumored that it can be done in the right climate. I think formally they are biennials in that they will certainly try to go to seed in the second year.

I left mine alone this past winter and ended up with a rather huge harvest at the end of the winter, which was a great surprise for me. I finally pulled them out to make room for spring plants. After that last harvest the plants were really starting to "thicken up" (get dense growth near the top), so I think they may have well been on their way to seed.

Here we plant collards year round. If planted in early spring, they grow all summer and you can crop off the leaves from the bottom of the plant to eat. As you harvest the leaves, the soil is hilled up around the main stalk. The plants will continue to root along the stalk. They will grow through summer, fall and most usually grow right through winter. We usually add a bit of 10-10-10 and compost every so often during the hilling process to feed them. They can get huge. Around April or May they will send up yellow flowers and make little pods full of seed, which you can save. By planting in spring you can have collards all year. I usually harvest lots for my chickens as well. They LOVE them!

You can also plant them late summer, early fall and they will grow through winter but you will have smaller plants. No matter when I plant here, they make seed April or May.

They really can take the heat and cold. Tough plants. BT will take care of the cabbage worms that also love them.

Here's our collard patch. Plants were started early spring and this pic was taken 6-24-17.

Good luck with your garden!

I plant mine in late fall, and by spring they are three feet tall! It would be painful to try to encourage small plants in mid-summer. My mature stalks are about two inches in diameter. I had one (before I took it out) that was trying to flower. The others showed no signs of it. The remaining one is fat and happy. No flowers being produced yet.

Agree that BT is the only thing you need.

Interesting idea about hilling soil around the stalk as the lower leaves are harvested, and getting more roots.

It is a plant that has a lot to offer, North or South. It is not just the nutrition, resistance to both hot and cold, and production but also the fact that it is a true understory plant. It does not just tolerate shade, it prefers it, and you can grow it under taller veggies or in beds that are too shady for other things. As you take it out you could freeze the leaves for making stock.

Amazing. Learn so much here. I removed perfectly healthy collards last spring to make room for tomatoes. I had assumed the collards would bolt or do poorly in the heat. With that kind of versatility and production, they earn a year round spot. Plus easy to grow organically.

even when they bolt in the second year, the leaves are tender and as good as in the first year. I even use the leaf stems for mixed juices and to make stock.

i may give collards a try this year again for the fall. i usually grow beets because it's a 2-in-1 vegetable. excellent leafy greens, especially for cooking greens (like spinach and others).. and then there is the beet itself..

the very strange thing i found (first time i ate beet greens) is that they are superior to spinach and almost all other cooked greens. even the thick stem taste excellent cooked.

went to a few garden centers to get some coll seeds, but looks like everything have been pulled for the season.. (do they not know people also plant for the fall? rather than throw them in the corner, i think they throw out the seeds.. very unfortunate waste).

another green you might want to consider, is Blue Kale. i even make chips out of them.. darn good too and many varieties hold up to hot weather.

Hi Steve, I just harvested a boat load of collard green seeds. If you want to do a trade for your blue kale, let me know.

I planted collard green a couple years ago. Somehow I ended up with a couple of volunteered plants outside my veggie garden. They became gigantic in the winter and this spring. I heard that they can be perennial in warm weather. Perhaps because of our mild winter last year, they survive. I recently just cut off the branches, keep some seeds and throw the rest to my chickens. They had great fun picking at them. I will see if the plant would come back with new leaves in the fall.

Eh, well, my remaining collard plant just croaked. It was truly amazing seeing that three-foot beast power through 100F weather, but in the last few days it's just gone all wilty on me, with leaves turning brown. Plenty of water. But I'm impressed. It should have been gone long ago. In fact, it'll just be another month or two until I'm planting more. I should be eating collards again in November.