Too much water can harm your plant as much as too little water.Īnother issue with growing kale in pots is that, despite being highly frost tolerant down to 10☏ (-12☌), container plants are a little more vulnerable to frost damage on the roots since the soil in the pot isn’t as insulated as the soil in the ground.

Make sure your potting mix drains easily and your pot has adequate drainage holes. If your kale is starting to wilt because it’s dry, give it a deep watering and after it perks up, add a little more water. If you are using a small pot to grow your kale, you may need to water every day or every other day during the heat of the summer. The main challenge with growing any large vegetables in pots is that as the kale gets larger and bushier, it will need more water than kale grown in-ground. As mentioned above, one of the advantages of growing kale (or any vegetable, for that matter) in pots is that you can move the pot around so the plant has the best conditions to grow. If you are growing outside, space and sunlight should not be a problem, even if you are growing on a balcony. Problems only arise if you do not have adequate space or lighting. There are almost no inherent disadvantages of growing kale in pots. You can also control how much fertilizer your kale gets, and you know most of it will be taken up by the plant instead of running off and being wasted. But don’t just discard it you can refresh the potting mix with some more fertilizer and mulch it to suppress weeds in future seasons. However, if you reuse the same potting mix the following year, you lose this benefit. If you use your own fresh potting mix, you don’t have to worry about weed seeds or bringing in diseases which can harm your kale. Other benefits include protecting your kale from soil-borne diseases and pests, as well as reducing weed problems. Are you growing in a cool spring or fall and want to give your kale plants a little boost to their growth? Just move your pots near a south-facing wall and they’ll continue to get lots of sun while getting a little extra warmth radiating from your home.

Are you growing kale in a relatively mild winter but expecting a polar vortex with temperatures below 10☏ (-12☌)? Just move it indoors temporarily. Is your newly transplanted kale getting some sun damage because it hasn’t completely hardened off? Just move it into a shady area until it gets adjusted to the outdoors. The greatest advantage is that you can more carefully control the growing conditions by moving the pot around. Most of the benefits of growing kale in pots are the same as growing other vegetables in pots.

Growing kale from seed in containers