New Red Fire Loose Leaf Lettuce
Indigo Radicchio
Tete Noire Cabbage
Cabbage, lettuce and radicchio normally don't grow very large in Kihei as they're cool season crops. This year they had even greater challenges due to the heat wave we had in December and January.
Almost all of the radicchio was damaged from the heat but Indigo survived and rebounded when the night time temps cooled in February. Although it doesn't look like a typical Indigo, and that's normal here, it did form a small variegated head.
The Tete Noire obviously prefer cooler temps - they grew very slowly and that's not unusual for some varieties of cabbage. The slugs loved living under the row cover and the Tete Noire were their favorite. The outer leaves were full of holes and quite unphotogenic. The head was just under 2 lbs and 7 inches wide.
New Red Fire was a wonderful surprise. This was the 1st time I planted this lettuce. I sowed the seeds in December but they didn't germinate due to the heat. In February, one seed germinated and grew into a lovely head of loose leaf lettuce with a very red center. I'll definitely plant this variety again.
Tete Noire is available from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. New Red Fire and Indigo are available from The Natural Gardening Company.
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