We’re not sure about you, but here in Cornwall quite a few of us have experienced mildew on kale in the past few weeks. Naturally, we have some thoughts on this and why it has affected us.
Firstly, we had a very long, hot and dry summer which has so far been followed by a warm, humid autumn. Secondly, in spite of the milder weather over the past month, we’ve still had very dry conditions. Any rain that we have had has barely touched the surface of the soil, and no doubt there are many others on other parts of the country who have experienced the same. The proof is in the digging – if we dig a trowel into the soil we can easily see that the moisture stops about 1-2cm down. It’s crazy!
In our humble opinion, it’s this combination of very dry soil and very humid air that has caused even Red Russian Kale (which is normally very resistant to mildew) to suffer.