So I planted this kale 4 years ago and it's still kicking, which is amazing considering I always thought kale was a biennial plant. It's thriving so much it's now taller than me.
Photo 1: June 2025
Photo 2: June 2021
Zone 10, coastal Southern California
by MiloSanDiego
31 Comments
Until it’s dead.
Depends on the type of kale and the climate. But based on that picture I’m going to say forever 😂
Wow! That is a whole-ass tree right there. Do the leaves still taste good?
Wow
Biennial refers to its reproductive cycle not its life span.
Is this tree Kale???
Wait, kale grows on trees? I thought it grew like spinach?
I had a kale plant overwinter for a few years … I loved having an endless supply! I’m in 7a, so it was def odd. Not complaining though! I love raw kale salads!
lol thats awesome. Mine get overtaken by aphids or bolts way before they could grow this big.
Lol, I had a same type of Kale that survived multiple years and I’m in SE Michigan where we get hard freezes. Didn’t get as tall as yours, but something like a 3″ stem at the base. I eventually wanted to put something else in its place. Getting the fricken thing out of the ground was not as easy as just pulling like the “young ones.”
What in the Jurassic park is going on?!
This is soooo cool!!!
Does it flower for you? I’d say that is a Kale tree! Nice job.
Has it gone to seed? Maybe it’s waiting for a cold winter that will never come.
That’s so wild! Never seen a Kale tree before. 😂
My god what are you feeding that beast?
now I know why it’s called dinosaur kale…
👀
This is what happens when you graft kale onto an oak tree
lol that is the most ridiculous kale I have ever seen!
r/absoluteunit
That kale tree is an absolute unit! Dang!
Man, in some places in the country kale doesn’t die every winter and gets to become a tree! I had no idea! *Cries in zone 3*
I’ve got one that survived the winter in NJ, going to see if it’ll keep going!
You just changed the way I see lacinato kale. This is so cool! You should be proud of your kale tree
Do you remember the variety? This is my dream as I use it weekly in breakfast smoothies lol
ETA: I’m also socal zone 10
I have a kale bush that is on its 4th year now. It has flowered every year since the second year, then died back in the summer. The first year the ded benches were behind the rapidly growing rosemary next to it so I didn’t yank it like I did for the pak choi next to it. Imagine my surprise when in the fall I saw kale leaves peeking out from behind my rosemary bush. Since then it has come back each year, produced decently, flowered around February and by may I have picked seed pods to use for growing microgreens and baby kale indoors in the summer.
More and more proof we are living in a simulation. Someone has messed with the Kale software in the matrix. LOL
https://preview.redd.it/ktdbnjvf3k6f1.jpeg?width=1439&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c03364a4be706ff08f892620f7456f990ea333a
They don’t call it dinosaur for no reason.
…and a partridge in a kale tree 🐦
If it starts singing, RUN.