This week I’ve been walking the Rainbow Tatsoi to select what plants we’ll be letting go to seed.
Overall, things are getting very stable. Some solid dark leaves with a lot of purple stems. Some diversity in savoy texture. Very similar growing habit.
But then I come upon this.
I haven’t seen an individual this green in the Rainbow Tatsoi in years!
One explanation could be that it is a single seed that got mixed in from another seed lot. But we didn’t growing anything that looked like this last year.
Another explanation is that it was a chance pollination with some brassica green in the salad beds that snuck out a flower before the bed was tilled under
Or, this is just some genetic memory that felt like expressing itself.
In the end, I pulled the plant from the ground to make sure it wouldn’t add any pollen or genes to next year’s population and move everything a little greener.