I’ve been wanting to start a cabbage landrace for awhile now, but I haven’t done it yet. I have a range of heirloom and other open pollinated seeds, in various maturity groups (early, mid, late). Trying to figure out how to time everything is very confusing to me. In the end, there are two different types of cabbage that I would want to breed:
Type E, as in “early”: an early-maturing cabbage that I can harvest relatively quickly, and whose stalks post-harvest can survive winter uncovered in the field to make seed later.
Type H, as in “hardy”: a hardy cabbage that can be harvested after hard frost, and again whose stalks post-harvest can survive winter uncovered in the field to make seed later.
Here are my questions:
Is it too stringent to select for stalk overwintering from the beginning? I’m in zone 5b (winter can be a low as -15 degrees F). For the first winter, should I dig up the stalks of desirable plants and then replant them in spring, to ensure that they can contribute their genetics to the first batch of seed, and then wait until the second winter to select for stalks overwintering uncovered?
Is it realistic to select for Type E and Type H simultaneously in the same growing area and the same growing season? Or do I need to separate them out, by time or distance?
I’m currently working on a cabbage landrace which I will hopefully be distributing through GtS, and I’m recruiting growers to help with the project. If you’d like a starting seed mix of 20-some varieties, let me know.
As far as early and late cabbages; my growing season is relatively short, so I didn’t separate them out. But you could probably have two separate populations. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about them crossing a bit, since they are all cabbages; that would make isolation, etc. easier.
Or, you could select for one population in which cabbage heads develop quickly, and then hold well for longer storage; how long is your growing season?
My first attempt at overwintering resulted in only one surviving cabbage; I have a difficult climate for overwintering plants. So this year, I’m trying to overwinter them under row cover and leaves, placing and removing plastic covers as necessary. That way, I can get the first generation through. If you had a root cellar, I’d go ahead and overwinter the first generation plants there, to give you a head start.
Thanks for the tips! Yes, I am interested in growing cabbage for the GTS seed mix. My climate is good for growing cabbage, but not good for overwintering stalks. So I guess I really shouldn’t try to select for uncovered overwintering until later, maybe the 2nd winter, or even the 3rd.
I might do 2 plantings. The first planting in spring would include a little of everything. My second planting (for fall) would be fast-maturing cabbages and cabbages with a reputation for cold hardiness (such as savoy-types). Or maybe just keep it simple with 1 planting that has everything.
That would take a bit of organizing to get seed across the pond, but not impossible. And if you made some efforts to do so, I’m sure there are other members of this community on each side that probably would like to see some other seed from the other side. Bodil’s pronouns are she/her by the way.
