Best Kohlrabi Varieties for Home Gardens

Most people assume kohlrabi is kohlrabi — buy whatever’s at the garden center. But varieties differ meaningfully: maturity ranges from 40 to 80 days, some stay tender at 2 inches while others hold at 10, and bolt resistance varies widely. Choosing the right one matters.

Here are the varieties worth knowing about.

Early White Vienna

The default. If a seed packet just says “kohlrabi” without a variety name, it’s probably this or something close to it.

• Days to maturity: 55
• Size at harvest: 2-3 inches diameter
• Skin color: Pale green to white
• Flavor: Mild, slightly sweet, clean
• Best use: Raw eating, slaws, quick cooking
• Heat tolerance: Moderate — bolts in sustained heat
• Cold tolerance: Good — handles light frost easily

Early White Vienna has been the standard home garden kohlrabi for over a century. It’s reliable, widely available, and produces a tender bulb at a manageable size. The flavor is quintessential kohlrabi: crisp and mild with a hint of sweetness, closer to broccoli stems than turnips.

Its main limitation is size. If you don’t harvest around 2-3 inches, it starts turning fibrous. It also bolts faster than newer hybrids when spring turns warm quickly.

Where to buy: Everywhere. Every major seed company and hardware store seed rack.

Purple Vienna

The other classic. Same basic plant as Early White Vienna, but with purple skin.

• Days to maturity: 60
• Size at harvest: 2-3 inches diameter
• Skin color: Deep purple
• Flesh color: White (the color is only skin-deep)
• Flavor: Slightly sweeter and nuttier than white varieties
• Best use: Raw eating (striking purple exterior makes it a visual standout on crudité platters)
• Heat tolerance: Moderate
• Cold tolerance: Good

Purple Vienna is essentially Early White Vienna’s prettier sibling. The flavor difference is subtle — many people describe it as marginally sweeter, with a faint nuttiness. The purple pigment is anthocyanin, the same antioxidant compound found in red cabbage and blueberries.

The color fades when cooked. For visual impact, eat it raw. Takes about 5 days longer to mature than the white version; otherwise, same growth requirements and limitations.

Where to buy: Nearly as available as Early White Vienna. Most seed catalogs carry both.

Kolibri

The refined purple. An F1 hybrid that improves on Purple Vienna in nearly every way.

• Days to maturity: 45-55
• Size at harvest: 3-4 inches diameter
• Skin color: Vivid purple
• Flesh color: Creamy white
• Flavor: Sweet, crisp, very mild
• Best use: Raw eating, salads, pickling
• Heat tolerance: Better than the Viennas
• Cold tolerance: Good

Kolibri is what you get when plant breeders take the Purple Vienna concept and polish it. The color is more uniform and vibrant. The flavor is consistently sweeter. It stays tender at a slightly larger size. And it matures faster than Purple Vienna despite producing bigger bulbs.

The improved bolt resistance matters for gardeners in warmer climates or anyone whose spring heats up quickly. Kolibri gives you more margin.

As an F1 hybrid, seeds cost more and won’t breed true if saved.

Where to buy: Johnny’s Selected Seeds, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Burpee.

Superschmelz (Giant Kohlrabi)

The one that breaks all the rules. Most kohlrabi varieties get woody above 3-4 inches. Superschmelz stays butter-tender at 8-10 inches across and 5+ pounds.

• Days to maturity: 60-80
• Size at harvest: 6-10 inches diameter (can go larger)
• Skin color: Pale green-white
• Flavor: Very sweet, exceptionally tender for its size
• Best use: Cooking (roasting, soups, gratins), feeding a crowd from a single bulb
• Heat tolerance: Moderate
• Cold tolerance: Good

Superschmelz is German for “super-melt,” referring to how the flesh melts in your mouth despite the plant being absurdly large. It was developed in Germany specifically to solve the woodiness problem that plagues oversized kohlrabi.

It delivers on that promise. A Superschmelz the size of a softball — or even a cantaloupe — will peel, cube, and cook as tenderly as a standard variety at half the size. This makes it ideal if you want to cook in volume, preserve through freezing, or just enjoy the novelty of a massive kohlrabi.

Needs 60-80 days and more garden space than compact varieties. Not ideal for containers. But for gardeners with space and patience, it’s remarkable.

Where to buy: Territorial Seed Company, Rare Seeds (Baker Creek), Adaptive Seeds.

Grand Duke

The competition winner. An F1 hybrid that earned an All-America Selections award, which means it performed well in trial gardens across different climates.

• Days to maturity: 50
• Size at harvest: 3-4 inches diameter
• Skin color: Light green
• Flavor: Mild, crisp, very uniform
• Best use: All-purpose — good raw and cooked
• Heat tolerance: Very good (one of the most bolt-resistant)
• Cold tolerance: Good

Grand Duke’s calling card is consistency. The bulbs come in uniform, smooth, and crack-resistant. If you’ve ever grown kohlrabi that split or developed irregular shapes, Grand Duke is the answer. It also has exceptional bolt resistance, making it suitable for areas where spring transitions quickly to summer.

Flavor-wise, it’s solidly middle-of-the-road — reliably good without excelling in any single dimension.

Where to buy: Park Seed, Burpee, Harris Seeds.

Kossak

The other giant. Like Superschmelz but an F1 hybrid with more uniform results.

• Days to maturity: 70-80
• Size at harvest: 6-8 inches diameter
• Skin color: Pale green
• Flavor: Mild, sweet, tender at large sizes
• Best use: Cooking, storage, bulk harvest
• Heat tolerance: Good
• Cold tolerance: Very good

Kossak is the hybrid alternative to Superschmelz. It produces large bulbs that stay tender, but with the uniformity and predictability that comes with F1 hybrids. The plants are vigorous and the bulbs are consistently smooth.

Kossak has better storage qualities than Superschmelz — good for fall crops you want to keep through early winter. Maturity is long (70-80 days), but if you want reliable volume, it’s the professional grower’s choice among the giant types.

Where to buy: Johnny’s Selected Seeds, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Stokes Seeds.

Winner

The hot-weather kohlrabi. Bred specifically for bolt resistance and warm-season performance.

• Days to maturity: 45-55
• Size at harvest: 3-4 inches diameter
• Skin color: Light green
• Flavor: Mild, sweet, slightly more complex than Early White Vienna
• Best use: All-purpose
• Heat tolerance: Excellent — the most bolt-resistant variety commonly available
• Cold tolerance: Good

If you’ve tried growing kohlrabi and it kept bolting before forming a decent bulb, Winner may solve your problem. It was developed with warm-climate gardeners in mind. It holds through temperature swings and extended warm periods that would send Early White Vienna straight to flower.

The flavor is pleasant — a step up from the basic Viennas, with a bit more sweetness and complexity. Bulbs are smooth and uniform.

Winner is an excellent choice for Southern gardeners, late-spring planting, or any situation where you can’t guarantee cool temperatures throughout the growing period.

Where to buy: Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Territorial Seed Company, and some specialty catalogs.

Quickstar

The speed record holder. If you want kohlrabi as fast as possible, this is it.

• Days to maturity: 38-42
• Size at harvest: 2-3 inches diameter
• Skin color: Light green
• Flavor: Mild, crisp, good for its speed
• Best use: Raw eating, succession planting, containers
• Heat tolerance: Moderate
• Cold tolerance: Good

Quickstar matures in about 40 days, which is remarkably fast even for kohlrabi. This makes it ideal for succession planting — you can get multiple harvests from the same bed in a single season. It’s also the best choice for containers where you want to turn over plantings rapidly.

The trade-off is size. Quickstar produces small bulbs and doesn’t stay tender if you let them grow much beyond 2.5 inches. Harvest on time.

Flavor is perfectly fine but not standout. You’re growing this for speed, not for culinary distinction.

Where to buy: Johnny’s Selected Seeds, some European seed catalogs. Availability can be spotty.

Choosing the Right Variety

Here’s a quick decision framework:

First time growing kohlrabi? Start with Early White Vienna or Grand Duke. They’re forgiving and widely available.

Want the best flavor for raw eating? Kolibri or Purple Vienna. The purple varieties tend to be slightly sweeter.

Hot climate or warm growing season? Winner. Its bolt resistance is unmatched.

Growing in containers? Quickstar or Early White Vienna. Fast maturity and compact size.

Want massive harvests for cooking? Superschmelz or Kossak. One bulb can feed a family.

Short growing season? Quickstar (40 days) or Kolibri (45 days).

Want to save seed? Stick with the open-pollinated varieties: Early White Vienna, Purple Vienna, or Superschmelz. The F1 hybrids (Kolibri, Grand Duke, Kossak, Winner, Quickstar) won’t breed true from saved seed.

Whatever you choose, the fundamentals remain the same: consistent water, cool-ish temperatures, harvest on time, and peel deeply. See our guide on how to grow kohlrabi for the complete growing process. Variety selection gets you in the right ballpark. Good growing practices close the gap.