Why Isn’t My Kale Growing?

Question

I planted kale and chard in my garden bed about 50 days ago and they haven’t grown much at all. I thought I had them too close to one another so I spaced them out about a week ago. any obvious reason why they didn’t mature based on my photo?

• 

Answer 1

I do notice a few things.

First thing's first: These types of plants do not like to be moved.

The next thing is the copious amount of wood in that soil. This is not a good source of nutrients, and depending how fresh they are, can actually steal nutrients from your plants.

You can try adding liquid fertilizers, but the wood in the soil will need to be decomposed.

It will decompose, naturally, over a couple of years.

You can add fungi to the soil to make it faster, though. Stropharia rugosoannulata, and Lepista nuda are very good candidates for soil remediation and breaking down debris. These are two edible mushrooms that I use in my soils, as well.

Adding plenty of organic compost will add many microbes that will help with the process, naturally.

Here are some articles that will help you:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/mushrooms/growing-wine-cap-mushrooms.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/organic/the-importance-of-soil-for-an-organic-garden.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/improving-garden-soil.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/kale/growing-kale.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/swiss-chard/swiss-chard-fall-planting.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/testing-soil.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/soil-ph-plants.htm