Kitchen Garden Forum

My first attempts at growing kohlrabi this year have proved disappointing with very few plants developing into tennis ball size. The remainder have barely formed bulbs and I'm wondering whether I've done something wrong. Are these just slow developers and should I leave them to grow in the hope that bulbs will form later in the autumn.
Can any experts give me some advice on how to do better next year. Thanks.

Mine are barely up to golf ball size yet but I'm still hoping.

Whatever you do, don't plant it next to fennel, the two plants hate each other as I discovered to my cost last year.

It may just have been the weather. I've been growing them for years and I think they're best picked when small, more tennis ball sized than golf though.

Primrose,
I've got a solitary ONE Kohl Rabi still growing (the slugs'n'snails eat all the other as soon as they geminated) and I'm determined to keep this one growing just to taste one for the very first time in my life. It's currently about golfball size.
'Citing isn't it?

Wellie, have just picked another three at tennis ball size. They suddenly seem to have put on a burst due to the rain over the past week. The couple I've picked have been absolutely delicious - with a very gentle subtle taste, and delightful cut up raw in matchstick size for salads. They're definitely going to be on my "to grow" list next year. In the past I've grown the purple skinned turnips and picked them tiny for salads, but their flavour is much stronger and not to everybody's taste.

Primrose, when did you sow [or plant out your kohl rabi? I tend to do this in mid-spring, but the results have been poor after my first year [I renewed my seed afer 2 years]. I expect them to mature in summer and I then sow another lot, but these didn't come up at all. The developing balls of my first lot were certainly eaten at, and I only ended up with 2 or 3 tennis ball sized veg. By the time we got all this lovely rain, I had no kohl rabi left!

mike

Mike, I sowed my kohl rabi seeds in mid June direct into in a south facing border and I also sowed some more in a seed tray at the same time. The seeds in the tray germinated well but became too leggy to plant out, and although the seeds in the border also germinated well, slugs got at them very quickly.
I only sowed a short row and next year I'm going to have to find some way (apart from slug pellets) to prevent them being eaten to death. I suspect I didn't sow the seeds deeply enough to prevent some of them from developing without the bulb, so it's really been an experiment for me this year. I suspect that these plants (rather like beetroot) don't really transplant well and that they're best grown in situ.

I checked mine today and they appear to be golf ball sized. I've not tried any yet though.

When you do get them, apart from finely shredded as a salad veg, they're lovely boiled and mashed with a bit of butter and black pepper, or added to a mixture of any root veg - whole or pureed.

I once ate them boiled and sliced in a white sauce. It was at a hotel in London so no idea what the sauce was but it was yummy.