Every month I take you inside what's happening in my Florida garden. The wins, the surprises, and what I'm learning in real time. This month it's all about collard greens.
My Collard Greens Are Massive This April
I was not expecting this. I've grown collards before, but this season they are enormous. Leaves the size of dinner plates, deep blue-green, thick, and still going strong. I've been thinking about what made the difference and I want to share it with you.
If you have tried growing collards and they did not work out, this post is for you too. Most of the time when collards fail it comes down to a few fixable things. Timing, soil, spacing, and water. Let's go through all of it.
Collards Are Perennials in Florida
Most gardeners treat collards like an annual and pull them at the end of the season. In Florida, that is a mistake. Collards are perennial here. If you leave them in the ground and keep harvesting, they will continue producing year after year. The plant you put in the ground this fall can still be feeding you two or three years from now. That changes how you think about them entirely. If you pulled yours thinking they were done, now you know. Leave them next time.
Which Varieties to Grow
Not all collards perform the same in Florida's heat and humidity. These are the varieties worth growing here.
Collard Varieties for Florida Gardeners
Georgia Southern — The classic. Heat tolerant, productive, and widely available. Large, slightly crinkled leaves with a mild flavor. A reliable choice across all Florida zones and a good starting point for beginners.
Vates — Compact with slower bolting. Holds up well as temperatures rise in spring, making it a good option for stretching your harvest into warmer months.
Morris Heading — Forms a loose head rather than an open plant. Tender and flavorful. Does well in North and Central Florida through the cool season.
Champion — A hybrid with strong disease resistance and consistent production. Worth trying if you have had issues with downy mildew or fungal problems.
Groninger Blue — An heirloom with deep blue-green leaves and excellent cold tolerance. Slower to mature but exceptional flavor. Well suited to zones 8b and 9a.
You can find seeds for these varieties in my Amazon shop: amazon.com/shop/rootedinjs
I am growing Georgia Southern this season. The size and production speak for themselves.
Start With the Right Soil
This is where a lot of beginners lose the crop before it even gets started. Collards want loose, well-draining soil with plenty of organic matter. They do not do well in compacted ground or soil that holds water after rain. If you are gardening in native Florida soil, amend it with compost before you plant. Work it in at least 8 to 10 inches deep.
Collards prefer a soil pH between 6.0 and 6.8. If your soil is too acidic, which is common in Florida, the plant will struggle to take up nutrients no matter how much you feed it. A simple pH test from a garden center will tell you where you stand. If you need to raise the pH, add agricultural lime a few weeks before planting and work it in well.
I Planted Early and Left Them Alone
I got mine in the ground in late September and just let them grow. In Florida, fall is your planting window for collards. The soil is warm enough for good root development but the air is starting to cool, which is exactly what collards want. Transplants are easier for beginners than starting from seed directly in the ground. You skip the germination stage and give the plant a head start.
By April these plants had been in the ground for six months. Fully established, deeply rooted, and still producing. Do not pull your collards at the first sign of warmth. They handle heat better than you think when they are well established.
Give Them Room
Spacing is one of the most common mistakes I see. Collards need 18 to 24 inches between plants. That feels like a lot when they are small transplants, but these plants get big. Crowding them restricts airflow, which leads to fungal problems, and it forces the plants to compete for nutrients and water. Give each plant its space and it will reward you for it.
Deep Watering, Not Daily Watering
When collards struggle, overwatering or shallow watering is often part of the problem. A little water every day keeps roots near the surface where they are vulnerable to heat and drought stress. Instead, water deeply two to three times a week and let the soil dry out slightly between waterings. Deep watering means soaking the soil to a depth of at least 6 inches. You can check this by pushing a finger or a wooden skewer into the soil after watering.
I water at the base of the plant only. Wet leaves sitting overnight are an open invitation for fungal problems, especially as humidity rises in spring.
Feeding Them Right
Collards are heavy nitrogen feeders. If your plants are growing slowly or the leaves are pale, nitrogen is usually the first thing to look at. I side-dressed with compost once a month and used a diluted fish emulsion drench every few weeks. Steady and simple. That kept them pushing out new growth without getting soft and floppy the way they do with too much synthetic fertilizer.
Watch for yellowing from the bottom up. That is a nitrogen deficiency. Feed them. If the plant looks lush but weak and leggy, you went too heavy. Back off and let the soil settle.
Pest Control Is Just Walking the Garden
Cabbage loopers and cabbageworms will take out a collard plant fast if you ignore them. You will know they are there when you see irregular holes in the leaves or small dark droppings on the surface. My method is hand-picking. Walk the rows, flip the leaves, pull off anything that should not be there. It works. I never had a serious infestation this season because I stayed consistent early on. Check your plants at least twice a week during the growing season.
How You Harvest Matters
Always harvest from the bottom up. Take the oldest lowest leaves first and leave the growing tip untouched. That keeps the plant producing instead of signaling it to stop. A common beginner mistake is taking leaves from the top or harvesting too many at once. Take no more than a third of the plant at a time and always leave the center growth intact.
Right now I am pulling 8 to 10 large leaves per plant every week. They just keep coming.
The Bottom Line
If collards have not worked for you before, it was not the plant. It was probably timing, soil, spacing, or water. All of those things are fixable. Start in fall, amend your soil, give each plant room to breathe, water deeply, and feed consistently. Then leave them in the ground and let them do what they do.
Florida gives us more cool-season time than most gardeners use and collards are one of the best crops to take advantage of it. Treat them as the perennials they are and you are not starting over every year. You are building on what you already have.
If you have not grown them yet, put them on your fall list. And if you have them in the ground right now, leave them. Let them run.
Toni J, Rooted In J's
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