GardenCollard variety
Vates Collard
✓ In your garden
Vates is a vates collard, ready in about 75 days. Big, hardy leaves you cook low and slow — a Southern staple that takes summer heat and winter frost in stride. Pick the outer leaves and it keeps giving for months.
“A hardy Southern green that shrugs off both heat and frost.”
Growing basics — shared by every collard
Vates grows like any other collard. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Collard page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 12–24 in
- Row spacing
- 30–36 in
- Planting depth
- 0.25–0.5 in
- Soil pH
- 6–6.5
- Water
- Moderate
What is Vates good for?
- Braised low & slowThe classic pot of greens. Great
- Soups & stewsHolds up to long cooking. Great
- RawTough — shred thin if raw. Skip it
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
What Vates is known for
Urban Farmer describes this as:
- slow to run to seed in heat
- takes the cold
That is the company selling the seed, describing its own product. True, and worth weighing as such.
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Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Vates in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around early Jun, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Start seeds indoors
- mid Feb – early Mar
- Toughen up outside
- mid Mar – late Mar
- Move plants outside
- late Mar – early Apr
- Plant seeds outside
- mid Mar – late Mar
- Growing
- early Apr – early Jun
- Picking
- early Jun – mid Jun
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
Growing Vates — the things that trip people up
- Pick the older outer leaves from the bottom and leave the center growing — one planting feeds you for months, and a frost only makes the leaves sweeter.
- Collards shrug off summer heat better than most brassicas and only sweeten after frost, so they crop from spring right through winter in mild areas. Feed them well and watch for cabbage worms (the little green caterpillars); a floating row cover keeps the moths off.
Vates collard at a glance
| Type | Vates |
|---|---|
| Days to ripe | 75 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Green |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about Vates
How long does Vates take to grow?
About 75 days from transplant. Start seeds indoors and set out young plants for a strong start.
When should I grow Vates?
Collards handle heat better than most brassicas, so they crop spring through fall, and frost only sweetens them.
Browse more collard varieties →