Kohlrabi
(Brassica oleracea gongylodes)
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Cultivars
Kohlrabi seemingly is not much grown in this country, despite a Continental popularity. One of the hindering factors appears to be the urgent need--with most varieties--to make sure
and pick it when still quite small, maybe 2 inches' diameter maximum, lest it get quite unpleasantly woody and even bitter. A great vegetable might justify the need for such prissy
attention, but we suspect that its best friends wouldn't call kohlrabi a great vegetable.
Fortunately--since it is quite a good vegetable: a flavor of the brassica class, but much sweeter and milder than most, somewhat like a turnip but less assertive--there
is a variety of kohlrabi that can, and does, achieve great size without losing any quality; that, obviously, is the type we trialled, and now will stick with. It
is most commonly called Gigante, but is also known as Superschmeltz (seed sold as Brukev might be the same cultivar). The ones
we grew got substantially bigger than a softball, yet were pleasantly mild, sweet, and good-textured. (It is said that ten-pound, bowling-ball-sized specimens are not rare.)
We previously wrote here "We hope that we end up liking it and growing it every year, just because of how much fun it would be to shout out "Hey, dear, let's have some superschmeltz
tonight!'" Well, by gum, we do like it, and yes, by gum, it is fun to say that! (It goes well with all sorts of sauces, but a dill/sour-cream one is especially heavenly.) This
is a seriously under-valued and under-used vegetable; it can (and for us and, it seems, many others) utterly displace turnips and rutabagas, but that's somewhat left-handed praise that
fails to do it proper justice.
Planting
Timing
Most or all commercial kohlrabi is direct-seeded, and there's no reason not to follow suit in the home garden. Mature kohlrabi withstand even severe frosts--indeed, the plant can be
left in the ground right through winter--but young plants may bolt if they see, say, a week of temperatures at or below 50°F. (daily highs, that is). Once started, kohlrabi is said
to grow best at a temperature between 65° and 75° F. Typical growth times are 7 to 8 weeks, though the superschmeltz/gigante cultivar is probably more like 9 to 10 weeks.
We thus have a choice of shooting for an early-summer crop or a later-fall crop (or perhaps both). We don't (on average, that is) start getting over 75°F. till about
June; thus, a spring planting made in early March should give a crop before the weather starts getting too hot for a brassica. At the other end, by mid-September we are usually back down
to the mid-70s, so a seeding could be made in early September (to let the seeds germinate while the soil is warmer (despite their preferred growing conditions, like many
cool-weather crops, its seeds germinate well at high soil temperatures); we could thus get a fall crop perhaps around Thanksgiving. Kohlrabi, like many "roots" (though it is not, in
actuality, technically a "root" crop--the bulb is an enlarged stem), becomes somewhat better-tasting after at least one light frost; and the "superschmeltz" type can be left to grow as
large as it will, and thus left in the ground well into cold weather, with harvest on an as-wanted basis.
Starting Seed
Sow seed ¼ to ½ inch deep. Jeavons recommends a
4-inch spacing, but he obviously wasn't dealing with Superschmeltz. We would say 6 inches absolute minimum, and more if your space allows it, up to 10 or even 12 inches, to accomodate the
large size they can attain.
The Bed
Kohlrabi likes much the same conditions as all cole crops: it's fairly indifferent to soil type and pH, but does like well-drained soil; some sources say they prefer a slightly
alkaline soil, a hair over 7.0. They are also said to prefer a "heavy" soil, so--within reasonable bounds--clay is not a problem. But unlike most coles, Kohlrabi is said to like a little
shade when growing (in a deep bed, the plant spacing will cause the leaves to act as a shade canopy over the plants--the proverbial "living mulch" effect--so that's OK). They are heavy
feeders, and want well-fertilized soil.
Growing
Established plants are drought-tolerant, but the best stems are formed when the plant does not go short of moisture.
The Superschmeltz variety will take 9 or 10 weeks to reach maturity after transplanting, so, as noted above, you could harvest a fall planting around the start of December. For a
spring planting, it is probably wise to take them whenever the daily temperatures start regularly hitting the mid-70s; if it's a warm year, and that happens early while the kohlrabi are
still a bit small, so be it.
You actually can harvest as early as you like in either season, but with the Superschmeltz type (which doesn't go all coarse and woody with size) you can, in the fall, just let it go
and go till it gets as big as it will, then--because they are so frost-hardy--leave it there till you're ready for it. (Though the ground might freeze, making harvest more difficult--but
the kohlrabi, the part we want being really a swollen stem, is actually almost entirely above ground.) We, in our ignorance last year, planted them way too early--around June 1st, and
they got hit by The Great Freeze--but we still got magnificent specimens from all our plants. This is one generous vegetable.
More
Relevant Links
Besides any links presented above on this page, the following ought to be especially helpful:
Odds and Ends
Biology
Kohlrabi's name (think "cole", as in "cole slaw", and "raab" as in "broccoli raab") tells its tale: it's another of the productive, tasty, and nutritious members of the
Cruciferae family, the crucifers.
Unlike most of them, however, it is grown for its swollen stem (though often called one, it is not a "root" vegetable).
History
Kohlrabi's true origin is unclear, but it was already known by the 1st century A.D., for Pliny the Elder mentions a "Corinthian turnip", which--from its described growing habits--is
almost certainly kohlrabi. Apicius, who wrote the oldest known cookbook on cooking and dining in imperial Rome, also mentions the vegatble in his recipes.
Charlemagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 800 A.D., ordered kohlrabi grown in all the lands under his reign; one thinks of Charlemagne as French, but his city of residence,
then called Aix-la-Chapelle, is now Aachen, which is in the Western portion of Germany--hence kohlrabi's German name, which means "cabbage turnip" (Charlemagne was better known in his time
as Karl des Grosses).
Kohlrabi found its way into Northern India in the 1600s, where it soon became a dietary staple. More recently, kohlrabi has become an established vegetable in China and Africa.
In America, the vegetable remains sadly neglected; only in the South does it enjoy even a modicum of popularity.
Envoi
Now that the town of Kohlrabi, California no longer maintains its web site, you might want to look in at this page about The Order of the Kohlrabi.
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