Early bolting, always bad? and more from the deep end

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I really like the secondary cabbages that grow after the main cabbage head has been cut off. I enjoy cabbage stems.

[diane]

Thompson and Morgan, a British seed company, sells annual Petit Posy brassicas. Here is their description:

a cross between the Kale and Brussels Sprouts species producing 'rosettes' of loose frilly edged buttons on a long stalk, in purples, greens and bicoloured leaves. However, the flavour and nutritional content of Brassica Petit Posy™ is akin to spring greens rather than Brussels sprouts - perfect for those who don't enjoy sprouts! Stands in condition throughout the winter, very winter hardy. The loose buttons are easy to pick off the stems and are perfect for adding to stir fries, serving steamed or microwaved and make very nutritious winter greens.

[philagardener]

Johnny's sells something similar as "Kalettes"

www.johnnyseeds.com/c-1066-kalettes.aspx

[khoomeizhi]

yup - seen them in the catalogs for a few years now...saw the first i'd seen in a retail environment recently - little 8oz baggy of sprouts-sized kales. i'd eat 'em, but it didn't look like anyone else was at all interested (they looked like they'd been there a while).

[reed]

Very interesting and I have plenty of kale that I expect will over winter fine since it did last year. I'm not very fond of kale though so I'll have to study on it some if I want it mixed in. Would definitely mix in cabbage and cauliflower if I ever have some bloom.

[reed]

I had never heard of CMS before I read of it here on the forum. I'm suspicious of it though in those kalettes. I will also be watching for it close in that one Brussels sprout that was a garden center plant purchase in spring 2014. Sure hope it isn't as I have harvested sprouts off it for two years and it lived through a lot of sub zero temps last year. Really hope to keep it's genes in the mix.

[philagardener]

Unfortunately, most commercially-produced brassica hybrids will have CMS (since that is how they efficiently make the cross) and pass it along through their offspring.

[steev]

I've found the "Ornamental Kale" quite sweet and tasty.

[mskrieger]

Joseph Lofthouse Your dream of a beet with a succulent, well-shaped root and tasty leaves may already exist. I grew a small patch of 'MacGregor's Favorite Beet' two years ago and it was great. The roots were tapered cylinders, delicious and smooth, and the leaves dark red and abundant. Not as juicy as your average chard but good flavor, and I clipped them for harvest twice before I harvested the beets. All in all a desirable beet and green in one.

I originally got the seed from Territorial. Wild Garden Seed seems to carry it now, too.

reed I've always heard that breeding a good brusselsprout was mighty tricky. Keeping the plants vigorous, sprouts tight and season short enough (less than 100 days) for most gardeners is the art. Easy to cross them with another brassica, and you'll get vigor for sure, but maybe not something you'd really want to eat. Or at least, not a brusselsprout.

However, when it comes to seed saving in limited space, I think it was Carol Deppe who pointed out that you don't have to do it all in a single season. And you can replant your seed crop plants much closer together than your food crop. So if you can squeeze 40 breeding brusselsprouts together in a patch and do another 40 the next year, you've got similar genetic diversity as if you bred all 80 together at once.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Baker creek has some domestic radishes bred specifically for the spicy seed pod eating instead of the root. They are indeed good. We have fields of some sort of wild radish relative here and the seed pods on them are also good and spicy.

[reed]

Jul 29, 2018 19:59:47 GMT -5 keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) said:

Baker creek has some domestic radishes bred specifically for the spicy seed pod eating instead of the root. They are indeed good. We have fields of some sort of wild radish relative here and the seed pods on them are also good and spicy.

I'm pretty happy with my radish mix up but I like the milder ones and select for that. I don't actually cull many though, I just harvest and save seed from the milder ones to insure a higher proportion each year.

I just let the hotter ones and a lot of the milder ones scatter on their own. It's working out pretty well, after four or five years or so I have a pretty good semi wild population with maturing plants and new sprouts here and there most all the time. Contrary to what I read somewhere I have not seen a reduction in root size. In fact especially in some that mature in fall the roots are enormous, crisp and tasty.

Only thing I'v see on the roots is occasionally one is  hollow and fibrous. I don't care though cause the flower buds, stems and seed pods is what we eat. Roots are mostly just to loosen and improve the soil.