Marianne's Response

Will my collard greens grow back?

I am about to pick my collard greens. The leaves are very big, but I want it to be so when I’m done they will grow back with more leaves. Is it possible that they will continue grow? I picked my mustard greens and spinach, and they did not come back. It’s been about two weeks. Do I have to replant them? I did leave the root in the ground.

Posted by Anise on June 3, 2014

Marianne's Response

Good for you! It sounds like you have had a successful harvest, and if you cut the greens of spinach and mustard to within one inch off the ground, and follow that with water and fertilizer than you may very well get a second crop of greens. This depends on your climate. Hot summers will stop spinach and other greens from making more leaves. Instead, they will bolt or flower with bitter greens. You should wait until fall, when the weather cools to reseed these two crops and enjoy an early winter harvest. If you shade the soil using hoops and Remay cloth over the rows you could cool the soil enough to coax the plants into a second harvest. Keep growing, Marianne Binetti