Here’s a Brassica cheat sheet for #seedsavingformarketgrowers
There are 6 common brassicas species.
If you grow two crops of the same species. They will cross pollinate together. For better or worse.
Mostly worse if you want something true to type.
But if you grow two brassicas of different species side by side, they will not cross.
(Yes, yes, there can be some chance crosses between species. But it is not common and for all intents and purposes they don’t cross.)
So if you have these 6 brassicas flowering in your garden at the same time:
- Green Wave mustard (Brassica juncea)
- Any arugula (Eruca sativa)
- Vates green curly kale (Brassica oleracea)
- Red russian Kale (Brassica napus)
- Tokyo Bekana (Brassica rapa)
- Some daikon radish (Raphanus sativus)
They will not cross with each other.
However you will have a gazillion buzzing pollinators.
A sweet smell in the air.
And tons of seed in your coffers. You will be rich, rich, RICHHHHH!!!!!
Brassicas have always been my favourite seed to save. There is something so satisfying about how easily they shatter. They’re so easy to screen and winnow. And they hold their germination and vigour for years.
If you grow a couple brassica crops, you’ll experience the true power of how satisfying seed saving can be!!!!
(Well that is except for saving radish seed. Radish seed cleaning drove me up the wall for years until we set up a stationary thresher.)
That’s it for Brassicas. Now it’s time for some other crossers.
