Cabbage Landrace

Adaptation Projects
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This year we harvested 150 cabbage. With the intent to save seed from at least 15. We pulled 15 by the root before they split and hung them upside down in a nearby cellar hoping they make it to spring to be replanted. We stored a few in our shed to replant this fall to see if they would winter over. Those we harvested for food we cut off at ground level and some of those started to grow leaves. We have replanted a few from the garage near those stumps that are flourishing. Then we will plant those hanging in the cellar to see which ones make seed. This is the first step for this landrace of collecting seeds. Won’t it be great if the hardy stumps send up seed shoots. If they produce that will allow us to taste test future generations.

Semi arid foothills of Utah. Cabbage loves our cool nights. Let me know if you’re interested.

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2022-11-01T06:00:00Z

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Emily S
Very nice! I live in Provo, and I’m trying to start a landrace of brassica oleraceas that perennialize in my garden. I’m very interested!

I currently have five large brussels sprouts and twelve kohlrabis that I’m hoping will live through the winter and set seed. I also have three small broccoli plants and two small cabbage plants that I’m hoping the same for. And hundreds more I planted seeds of months ago that are finally sprouting! I don’t know if those little seedlings will live through the winter, but if they do, I’ll be extremely pleased.

Holly T. Hansen
Emily I live in Croydon, Utah. I’d love to see your projects come spring. And you’re welcome to come see mine.

Emily S
I’d love to see pictures! Driving up there would be a bit far for me. :wink:

Do you have short, cool summers, like Joseph Lofthouse does? It looks like you’re geographically fairly near him. Down in Provo, I have long, hot, super dry summers, with almost all of our rainwater coming in winter in the form of snow.

Holly T. Hansen
I have cooler and shorter summers than Joseph. I’m happy to share pictures. Here is my cabbage patch this summer. The cabbages averaged 6-8 lbs a head.

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J Larson
That’s cool. If you’re able to get the head and leave the roots and that works it means in the spring you could just pick up the fastest ones to go to seed, plus whichever heads tasted the best, etc and just save the seed from them as well. It’s win win. I wonder if brussel sprouts work the same way - that’d be really nice

J Larson
Sauteed Brussels sprouts flower heads | Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens looks like you can harvest the sprouts but leave the stems and they’ll grow the flower pods. Very cool

Emily S
Interesting! I’ve been wondering if I could harvest the brussels sprouts and still get the flowers. Does anyone else have experience with that, and know for sure?

J Larson
Seems like you harvest 1/2 :slight_smile: and leave the other 1/2

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I’m interested! We’re fond of cabbage. Also interested in getting crops to regenerate from significant damage, and in getting biennials to stress-bolt after a near total harvest.

Haven’t grown it before though, aside from some transplants of maimed cabbages from the grocery store. Have some collards and cabbages planned for next year, along with the kale+ grex. I guess they’re all the same species? I get fuzzy on where exactly the lines are with brassica oleracea.

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Great! Let me know how your kale grex project works out !

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I get so fuzzy on where the lines are with brassica oleracea that I just plain don’t care. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
If it gives me yummy stems and flowers, I will happily save seeds and try to keep it alive for multiple years.

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Update on the cabbage landrace project. We still have 15 cabbages hanging in the cellar waiting for spring to get planted the rest of the cabbages are well insulated with snow for the winter.

We have about 3’ of snow but you can still see the little humps where the cabbages are hiding away.

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My goal for my Brassica Oleracea project is extreme diversity, though I still want to have a large percentage of the plants produce some kind of storage organ, cabbage heads, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi stems, and weird mixes. (maybe a brussel sprout stalk but with little broccolis or cauliflowers!) I don’t care how Brassica Oleracea crosses up, but I do appreciate the other brassica species for their different qualities.

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Yes, that sounds great! I have some brussels sprouts and kohlrabis overwintering side by side right now, and I’m hoping they’ll flower together, so I can save some crossed seeds. I’m hoping some of the segregates will give me the best of both worlds. Wouldn’t that be great?

I’m particularly hoping to select for Brassica oleraceas that stick around as perennials. I’ve heard a lot are biennial and die after producing seeds, so I’ll be heavily favoring the seeds from any plant that stays alive after it produces seeds and sticks around through the summer.

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I have two plants I discovered just yesterday that are still alive in their second winter. The -14 F just before Christmas killed 80% of my broccol-ish planted last fall and all of those left from the prior year appeared dead but those two have little shoots coming up from the base of the dead stalks.

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  1. It’s a pity that so many of them died. And understandable. What a cold temperature. Brrrr.
  2. Some survived to resprout after that! Awesome! And they’re on their second winter, too! I’m definitely speaking for myself, and I suspect a lot of other people, too: I want seeds from those plants for my garden! :grin:
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I am intersted. Do you know your favorite varieties? I would like seeds from any cabbage that is not from an F1 hybrids because of concerns with CMS.

Also, I am mostly interested in cabbage heads and don’t really want other “Brassica oleracea” species mixed in just because I like to make sauerkraut and have found that fermented broccoli and kale taste like a jar of farts when fermented! :joy:

I :heartbeat: Brassica oleracea but cabbage makes the best winter food for me in AK. Should I let you know if I manage to get seed? I fall planted a bunch of starts but won’t know their survival rates for another couple months.

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Apologies if this thread’s being closed inconvenienced anyone. It seems according to Discourse’s reckoning that I closed, reopened, and closed it on the ninth. Though I’ve no memory of it and certainly no intention

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Oh, that explains it! I wondered why it got locked. Thanks for explaining! (Chuckle.)

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The snow finally left my cabbage patch. The cabbages we hung in the cellar dried out and turned into crumbles when we touched them.

Below is a picture of those left in the garden. We are going to check for life on Saturday. Stay tuned.

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We had a cabbage look like that this spring. Most of the head had gone to mush and sloughed off easily.

Whether it was the right thing to do or not I don’t know, but I cleaned most of the gunk off to uncover living tissue. The black flies did the rest of the cleaning. Doesn’t look like a cabbage anymore but it is flowering.

Any news on these ones?

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We pulled the tops off yesterday. @Joseph_Lofthouse took his machete to them and all are growing. I’m very excited. We should have lots of seed this year.

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Yay! That’s very exciting, indeed!

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That’s great!

Do you think you would have been better off just eating the head and leaving the stump to regrow, rather than leaving the heads over the winter? How much of the interior of the head was actually still alive?

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Yes, we think we could have harvested the head and left the stump to grow more leaves before freezing. I’m going to watch it close and continue testing. You have to leave enough that the root doesn’t die. Pictures coming soon.

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Holly harvested the main head of this one last fall. The tiny new head looks great this spring.

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This went into winter as a full head, which rotted away, but it sent out new shoots from the stem near ground level.

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