Trial: Annual
Years Trialed:2007Good Qualities
Easy to grow, something different for creative customers who like "different"; Beautiful shade of pink, nice addition to the series!; 'Pink Crane' "flowered" earlier compared to other Crane Series, ie., White Crane, Red Crane, and Bicolor Crane - the pink and red in the series tend to flower somewhat shorter than the white and bicolor - this seems to be caused by the white and bicolor growing more erect while the pink and red seem to have a crook at the base of the stem.Problems
Very susceptible to flea beetle damage; Prone to cabbage loopers both early on and later at harvest time - was ready for harvest at the tail end of our market season in Maine - customers generally commented on it but did not buy it; Has same pests as cabbage that need controlling throughout the growing season; Cabbage moths and flea beetles - BT took care of the cabbage moth larvae and the flea beetles came and went without any help; Correct timing is everything; None.Similar Cultivars
We tried the others in the Crane series a couple of years ago; The other crane series of ornamental cabbage.Postharvest
Remove damaged/lower leaves to prevent water contamination; We used plain water; Flowering kale will last at least a month in outdoor arrangements - warmer temperatures will cause the stems to smell like cabbage, since that is what they are!; Careful with food, tends to yellow older leaves; We cut in the field into hydrating solution, transfer to Chrysal #2 and put in the 34oF cooler until sold -- may be weeks - when sold, we re-cut stems and deliver in water.Trial Data
| Yield (stems/plant) | Stem Length (inches) | Market Appreciation Rating¹ | Repeat Again Rating¹ | Ease of Cultivation Rating¹ | Average Spacing (in2) | Average Postharvest Life (days) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale | Retail | Consumer | |||||||
| Average | 1.0 | 19.3 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 76 | 12.6 |
| Range of Responses | 0.89-1 | 2-36 | 4-5 | 3-4 | 3-5 | 3-5 | 3-5 | 36-144 | 7-17 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Comments
We would probably not use valuable greenhouse space again for this crop as it was not very profitable; For tall straight stems, close spacing and mesh are needed - but, if the top is pinched out, the stem will form several smaller flowers that are quite useful; Pink Crane is a good addition to the series and useful in that it comes in earlier than others in the series giving flexibility in harvest for Farmers Markets - ornamental Kale was one the success stories of this years trial - three other Crane series kale was use for comparison; This and all of our other brassicas are a lot of work, strong netting is mandatory, removing leaves as the crop grows is tiresome, we did it 8 times - next year I plan to start it later to save labor, 60 to 70 cm is plenty tall enough, we got 90 cm!!! we always have some runts that grow 20 cm tall and they are a great length and diameter for arrangements, this would be a great research project planting at 3 week intervals to see how late we could go to save labor; Plants are just coloring up now due to exceptionally warm Sept/Oct. (Zone 5b).