I’ve been growing perennial vegetables for a number of years. Most types are relatively close to their wild ancestors or in any case are not grown as named varieties. There hasn’t been much breeding work in most of them. The upside is that they’re often fairly genetically diverse, with some exceptions. Many of them are self-incompatible and are promiscuously pollinating. There’s generally a lot of breeding potential with perennial vegetables, so low-hanging fruit.
I want to apply the landracing method to growing these plants. I will start documenting some of my thoughts about this project here and look forward to hear what you think, suggestions and tips for seed sources and partners.
In my nursery I’ve grown hundreds of different perennials over the last 8 years and this year my top priorities for landracing are these eight:
Good King-henry (Blitum bonus-henricus) - improved taste, larger flower stalks, possibly more seedy, possibly inter-generic crosses (same tribus as Spinacia)
Perennial kales - winter hardiness, bushy growth habit (rooting where side shoots hit soil), perenniality, more abundant flowering (brocollini), color variations
Staphylea sp. - already seems like the perfect perennial vegetable, but if I get larger genetic diversity I might encounter traits to improve on
Seombadi (Dystaenia takesimana) - also do not have a clear idea how to improve at the moment, but the genetic diversity in Europe and North America is unfortunately very, very small. As far as I know all plants stem from 2-3 accessions from Ulleungdo where the plant is native. A contact in Korea or Japan who would be willing to send seed would help diversifying this plant immensely.
I might make separate posts for each when I get started on them.
Awesome! Hardly ever heard of those!
I love perennials, they grow much faster in spring. I like to use them as ground cover to block out invasive grasses at the edges of where i grow my annuals.
I got rhubarb, which seeds worked, a perennial kale, both i use as a ground cover to block out weeds, it’s flowers didn’t produce viable seeds though.
I’ve got a nice tasting sorrel, great for sauce with fish dishes.
I got Turkish radish too, but i don’t like it.
I’ve got Alexanders, a civilized one and a wild one i gathered last year from the south of France. Hopefully together they’ll produce some seeds.
Chives i’d say is perennial, but mine doesn’t produce viable seeds, luckily, invasive enough as is…
I got wild leeks, which does produce viable seeds, i suspect it’s perennial as well, tastes of garlic.
I got Green Asparagus which produces viable seeds. I’ve gathered my neighbors white ones.
I’ve got Cardoons, Artichokes 'wild’ancestor with viable seeds, tastes great as well.
Wild perennial rocket salad, which comes peeping in spring when the annual is seeding.
I can add to the seed train if you’re interested.
Yes, please do add it to the rolling seed swap, Hugo. I grow all the plants you mention and I will probably move most of perennial cultivation into using more diverse seed eventually, so very useful for me!
Turkish rocket - I’m not sure how you use it, but don’t eat the leaves. Just go for the flower buds and treat them as you would rapini. Paired with strong flavors, I love to eat these. And coming from a long-lived perennial, that is drought-tolerant, easy to propagate (cloning from root cuttings), reliably produces, I’m very satisfied.
The main sorrel I’m growing comes from France - “de Belleville”. I would love have some more diversity there. It’s a reliable source of acidity and very versatile. The students at my school love it too.
Rhubarb is interesting. The main reason it’s not on my list I suppose is I’m not sure what to select for. Everyone wants red rhubarb. But they’re usually less productive than the greener ones. I have some kind of psychological block to select for criteria in plants that make them less vigorous (maybe I need to reflect a bit on that, very open to arguments here). I would like to eat the flowers more - they’re tasty but there’s some kind of off-flavor that makes me want to limit my intake (sign of possible toxicity - maybe it’s the laxative emodin, just speculating, reminds me of Japanese knotweed).
I wonder if i still have some of those sorrel seeds, they were from Brexit time from realseeds. Maybe i better send you rootstock, they flower at the same time as wild sorrels.
The rhubarb is in the same boat, i just left the flowers for the insects, everybody told me to cut the flowers, you’ll have no foliage left and stuff…but i had divided and divided and way too many anyway, nowadays villagers wonder into the garden to harvest and i get part of the marmelades they cook. But we have those beautiful june bugs that have orgies in the flowers, they’re like all high of food and love for a few days. I select for that. No just kidding.
I have those seeds, people said they wouldn’t be viable, they were, because i had different rhubarbs, i was afraid they would mix with wild sorrel pollen, didn’t happen either, the ones i grew out were perfect little rhubarbs…
Someone was happy to share their super early rhubarb with me. He was allready making marmelades while my fuzzy rhubarbs were still well in wintersleep. They turn bitter after mid summer or something, would be nice to have fresh rhubarb all season. With lots of honey cooking it soft and then 50-50 into yoghurt is fantastic.
My Turkish rocket’s flowers are very disapointing too, i don’t know how anybody could eat it, but you know how these seed companies operate… They’ll sell wild seeds they find by the side of the road. They’re scum of the earth.
Anything goes as long as it fills their pockets.
That’s why i love exchanging and handing out seeds. Because for every seed i hand out, some greedy seed monopolist is crying in his bed somewhere.
Malte, its great that you’re thinking of breeding and selecting these crops! I think there as a lot of potential there. I would love to start working on breeding better perennial veg.
I haven’t been able to cultivate Hablitzia with much if any success in our warm humid climate (mid Atlantic US). I was thinking about trying to get climate adaptation out of it by grafting it onto amaranth or something similar. There may not be enough intrinsic diversity for it to adapt here, but maybe if I can graft the young seedlings the intergeneric grafting stress will allow them to seed and produce more vigorous progeny.
Last year I started intergeneric grafting experiments with perennial kale, which I will do some playing with this year too. Also starting to adapt the perennial kale grex here since last year. Some have already got taken out by the winter but not all.
I found some ornamental perennial kale for sale in a garden centre a few weeks ago. Apparently, they’re sold for the looks and dug up with they start becoming large plants. I’m leaving mine in the ground and crossing my fingers it will flower. Happy to share the seeds if and when it happens.
I do have a hosta that flowers that might have seed, and also a toona sinensis and staphylea but they’re young and won’t be seeding yet.
really very interesting project! if I had to lead such a project I think I would go on interspecific hybrid.
Indeed the so-called wild plants are generally genetically diversified but with little variability.
Example if I cross origanum vulgare x origanum vulgare ‘Golden dwarf’ I would have variations in the seedlings on the colors of leaves or flowering but we should not expect much more.
But I cross origanum vulgare x origanum syriacum, there the variations appear on a whole lot of criteria. And if I recreate F1 with Origanum onites or other species there it begins to be a very varied population where I could hope to spot a criterion sought as you wish
I wish everything was perennial. Then I’d never have to plant again:) As far as what I would consider vegetables, I’ve got: asparagus, rhubarb, sunroot, good king henry, perrenial kale, siberian pea shrub, skirret, hostas, hog peanut, american ground nut, lovage and ramps.
Plus wild perennial sheep sorrel, wintercress, etc.
Plus lots of perennial herbs, fruits and nuts.
I also have parsley, celery, chard and brussel sprouts which are technically biannual but have been coming back for 3+ years.
Thanks for the tip. It’s a very good assortment they have. They seem to only sell individual plants. I have most of the species they sell. To widen my genetic diversity, I think I will benefit most from finding different seed sources instead of clones. Do you know of any edible perennial seed producers?
Yes, I’m particularly interested in curled parsley. It doesn’t seem like there is much diversity in the cultivar. Pretty much everything is either labeled “moss curled” or “triple curled” which I suspect is the same thing.
I eat it more like a vegitable either raw in tabooli type salads or lightly steamed with other veggies. The texture gives you something to bite into compared to the flat leaf.
It does well in my garden but I’d like to select for faster germination and bushier growth
I order my rare perennial seeds from the following site which has some edible species too. It is more specialized in Asian plants and plants that attract auxilaries. But there are very rare things not found elsewhere.
I think for you angelics
The curlier type is the most common in my country because it has proved to be slightly more cold tolerant. Would be very cool to have parsley that tends to be a short-lived perennial.
I would be interested in growing some of these perennials and adding diversity to the ones I already have. Do you have seeds of your perennials @malterod ?
Yes, most of plants listed above I have own seed of. Some of them I only have few seed of and have trouble germinating properly (Staphylea and to some degree Hosta, but will solve the latter this season I suspect). Some of them (Toona), I’m still waiting for large enough plants to flower and set seed (tree). I’ve included most of them in the Serendipity Seed Swap, but let me know if there are any of them you especially want to grow.
