Red Russian Kale

Brassica napus 'Red Russian'

vegetable

Red Russian is a tender Siberian-type kale (Brassica napus, the same species as rapeseed, rather than the curly Brassica oleracea kales). Its flat, oak-shaped, blue-green leaves carry striking purple-red midribs and stems, and the texture is notably more tender and the flavor milder and sweeter than curly kale, making it the best choice for raw salads and massaged-kale dishes. Fast-growing and very cold-hardy, it produces baby leaves in about a month and full leaves in 50 to 60 days, sweetening further after frost.

✅ Plant alongside

Good neighbors that attract beneficial insects or deter pests

• Beets — Use different root zones and add minerals; a tidy interplant with leafy kale
• Onions — Their scent helps mask the brassica smell that draws cabbage pests
• Dill — Draws parasitic wasps and ladybugs that prey on aphids and cabbage worms
• Nasturtium — Trap crop that pulls aphids and flea beetles off the kale

❌ Keep away from

🛡️ Pest & disease prevention

Proactive ways to stop trouble before it starts — tap a name with an arrow for its full guide

• Cabbage worms →

  Cover with floating row cover from transplant, handpick green caterpillars, and treat heavy pressure with Bt

• Cabbage loopers →

  Row cover excludes the moths; Bt controls larvae if they get established

• Aphids →

  Hose off colonies on leaf undersides and plant dill or alyssum to draw their predators

• Flea beetles →

  Row cover on young plants stops the shothole feeding; flea beetles ease off as plants size up

• Harlequin bugs →

  Handpick the shield-shaped bugs and their barrel-shaped eggs, and clear brassica debris in fall

🌾 Harvest & storage

Pick Red Russian as baby leaves at about 30 days for salads, or let leaves reach full size at 50 to 60 days. Harvest the outer leaves first, snapping them at the base, and leave the central growing point so the plant keeps producing for months. Flavor turns sweetest after a frost. In mild zones it overwinters and offers tender spring shoots before it finally bolts.

🥗 Nutrition & benefits

Kale is one of the most nutrient-dense vegetables grown: a single 100 g serving supplies several times the daily requirement of vitamin K, large amounts of vitamin A as beta-carotene, and around 90 to 120 mg of vitamin C, plus the eye-protective carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin and useful calcium. Red Russians purple pigments add anthocyanins on top of the standard kale profile.