My spring collards have done amazingly well, cannot believe how many huge leaves they make. (planted March or April)
Do they bolt or otherwise poop out before fall though?
The new leaves seem different lately. But I got a batch of striped cabbage worms that chewed up the emerging leaves.
Am I better off starting new plants for fall? I expect they'll live well into November.

I see tall collard tree in my hood. I think it makes new leaves so that's what matters. I don't have space, that's why I rip them out every year.

Sally, when I was actively keeping honey bees I got a call from an old fella that had a swarm of bees on...a collard plant. That statement definitely confused me but I went to get the bees out of his way anyhow.

When I got there what I found were about a half-dozen collard plants that were, get this....six feet tall!!!!!! The bees were hanging onto a couple of the plants. The plants kind of reminded me of palm trees....bare trunks going up to canopies of collard leaves. I asked the old guy about them and he said he had planted them about THREE years ago!!!! He said he'd come out and break some leaves off the bottom for he wanted to cook and said he repeated the process regularly. The collards kept growing and he kept picking. Living here in south Alabama I guess we didn't have any really bad freezes during those years...and the freezes that we did have probably only sweetened the collards up for him. The old guy has passed on and the last time I rode by where the collards were they were no longer there, but I still think about him and his collards.

So, I say give them a try if you want to. I don't know how it worked for him...whether they bolted, got bitter at times, or just kept growing and tasting good somehow. I do know they were some mighty tall collard plants!!!!

Yes, seeing mine I can see how there is a Walking Stick Kale.
I bought a six pack but also grew my own seed for another six.. along with various others greens, so I might take out some collards now. Easy to find starters in late summer here and let somebody else worry about seedlings in hot weather!!

I am still spraying Bt though, keep down the caterpillars. And, caterpillars are not on my curly kale, so the collards seem to be trapping them. one great reason to keep some collards going.