New from Old

Colourful Collards - May 2010

2010-05-04T18:20:00.005+10:00

I've got a couple of pictures comparing the combinations of matt/glossy and green/red. I expect the red/purple colouring to deepen as it gets colder.

For both pictures:
Top left - red cabbage (red, matt)
Top right - green broccoli (green, matt)
Bottom left - Red cabbage x Green Glaze F1 (red, glossy)
Bottom right - Green Glaze (green, glossy)

Colourful Collards

2010-04-14T16:15:00.010+10:00

I enjoy collards and kales as they grow well over winter here. Last year I happened to have a red cabbage, bought from a local nursery, growing next to a Green Glaze collard and I wondered what a cross between these two might look like. I left them to it but I couldn't get the red cabbage to flower. I posted about this on a great forum called Homegrown Goodness and one of its members suggested cutting off the cabbage head. This I did and sure enough, several side shoots appeared which sent up flower stalks.

I left the bees and other insects to effect the crosses and collected the seeds when they began to dry down. I kept them separate so that I had, hopefully, Green Glaze X red cabbage F1 and the reciprocal red cabbage X Green Glaze F1. Nearby, about 2 metres away, I had let some broccoli go to seed at the same time so it was quite possible that some broccoli genes got into the mix too. Given that it was all an experiment anyway I didn't mind this.

Well, now I've planted out a number of the F1s from this cross and have some interesting plants growing. From the Green Glaze seed parent I planted out a number of seedlings with a matt finish to the leaves and very attractive purple/red tones, like the one here. I didn't think at first that I had any F1s from this cross with the glossy foliage of the seed parent but I noticed just this morning that a few of them are indeed glossy. What's going on here? More on this later.

The reciprocal cross, red cabbage X Green Glaze F1, mostly look like this. They have the distinctive glossy foliage of the pollen parent, Green Glaze, but with purple tones in the stem, petioles and leaf veins from the seed parent. A few of the seedlings look more like the seed parent, in other words, no glossy foliage but definite purple tones. This is an interesting mix of seedlings.

Hmmmm...not, it seems, your bog standard Mendelian genetics! Or is it? There are several factors that need taking into account. First, there could be some selfings. Some references claim that collards and cabbages are self-incompatible but further investigation suggests that this is not always the case. It seems that the self-incompatibility depends on the particular cultivar and the maturity of the plant. Mine were both quite old. The cabbage didn't seem to want to flower and I had to keep cutting the flower stalks off the Green Glaze plant. Second, I bought the red cabbage as a seedling from a local nursery and many veggies these days are F1 hybrids. If the red cabbage was already an F1 hybrid then it would have been segregating out. I think this is quite likely given the variety of seedlings I'm seeing in my putative F1 population. Then there is the nearby broccoli that might have contributed something. Lastly, although I haven't been able to find out much about the genetics of Brassica oleracea, the species to which cabbages and collards belong, there is some suggestion that there are both dominant and recessive genes for both glossy leaf and purple/red colour.

No point in trying to figure it out. Too many genes involved I'm thinking. Not to worry. The variation only makes it more interesting as a cross and I'm looking forward to tasting some of these F1s and to the growout of the next generation.

A Golden Beetroot for Slicing

2010-01-17T20:43:00.006+11:00

I really like the slicing quality of the beetroot cultivar 'Cylindra' with its long, even roots. I also like the fact that yellow beetroots don't bleed everywhere. I decided that a golden, cylindrical beetroot would be a nice addition to my garden. In 2008 I happened to have both 'Cylindra' and 'Golden' growing so I moved one of each to a patch away from the others so they could do their reproductive thing privately. I simply left them to it, although I did ensure that their flower stalks intertwined. I had no idea of the genetics at the time but was hoping that the golden root would be a simple recessive trait. As it turns out I was almost right. There are three genes that control the colour of roots, as well as hypocotyls (embryonic stems), petioles and larger leaf veins. Two of the three, acting in concert, determine whether pigment produced is red, pink, yellow or absent (white) with modifiers that determine intensity. The third gene is essentially a switch controlling whether or not the pigments are expressed at all.
I took a bit of a gamble and saved only the seed from the 'Golden' plant hoping that at least a few crosses had occurred. The gamble paid off. I got a good number of red-stemmed seedlings from the collected seeds. These were my 'Golden' X 'Cylindra' F1s. I grew six of these. All were large, lusty plants with lovely big, round roots. Round! I began wondering how the root shape gene(s) might behave. I haven't been able to track down any information on this so I'll keep my fingers crossed that the cylindrical root shape is a simple recessive trait.
Anyway, I've collected a lot of F2 seed and sown a tray full. As expected, I got roughly 25% yellow-stemmed seedlings though it's hard to tell from the picture. You have to look hard to see the yellow stems. I'll plant out as many of the yellow-stemmed seedlings as I can, plus some of the red ones for eating. Come spring, I'll dig them up hoping to find at least one cylindrical root. I'll decide the next step at that point. In all likelihood, I'll have to keep some round-rooted yellows to keep the diversity in the gene pool. As I said, I have plenty of F2 seed so I can certainly sow more if needed.

Pepita Project F1

2010-01-15T19:04:00.012+11:00

I thought it about time for an update on my pepita project. I work occasionally in a plant nursery and they have plenty of unused space behind their green houses so I planted a couple of my 'Lady Godiva X Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato F1' seeds there. It's not all that sunny but the big advantage is that water seeps out from the greenhouse so I don't have to worry about watering. I only planted a couple because I figured I really only need a few F1 fruit. I should get lots of F2 seed from them, fingers crossed.
Here's a picture of the plants. It doesn't do them justice. They are enormous, scarily so, though I think it has a lot to do with rather less light than they would like. Or perhaps just hybrid vigour. Or both. I wouldn't want plants this size in my garden. I might have to introduce some bush genes into the mix. Plenty of zucchinis about with bush habit. As an aside, next to these are a couple of melon plants, 'Amarillo Oro' in fact. They are doing extremely well and have set a good number of fruit. It will be touch and go though because they are inodorus types, like casaba melons, which tend to be late season melons. Worth trying though.
Back to the pumpkins, the fruit itself is not unlike 'Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato', being about the same size and almost identical colour. The obvious difference is the rounded shape and the almost complete absence of the classic acorn ribbing that 'Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato' has. The size could change as the season is still quite young. Summer should run for another six weeks or so. Of course, autumns here tend to be on the short side and March can get very cold very quickly and if we have an early frost, well, I'd rather not think about that! My guess is that naked seededness is a recessive trait so these little gems should have normal, hulled seeds. Time will tell.

Pumpkins and Pepitas

2009-04-04T13:52:00.006+11:00

I've heard that naked-seeded pumpkins don't make the best eating, with flesh that is either bland, stringy or both. I've only tried 'Lady Godiva', a cultivar developed in the US for the pepita market, and it's certainly the case that the flesh isn't the best. However, it does have some very nice features: it's early, productive and a good size, about as big as a soccer ball.
I thought that if it were crossed with a good tasting pumpkin I might get a good tasting naked-seeded pumpkin down the track. Now 'Lady Godiva', like all naked-seeded types, is a member of the species Cucurbita pepo and not wanting to make things difficult for myself I decided to cross it with another C. pepo type. A friend recommended 'Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato' as a suitable partner. Indeed, it is a lovely little acorn type with fine, smooth flesh and although the flavour is good, there is no sweetness. I'll worry about that later. I grew both this season and used 'Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato' as the pollen parent. I'm hoping that naked-seededness is a simple, recessive trait so that it's recovery will be straight forward but I know nothing about the genetics. I'll just wait and see.
Here are the two pumpkins, along with some of their garden companions from the season just ending.
Clockwise from top left: 'Lady Godiva' (C. pepo), 'Australian Butter' (C. maxima), 'Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato' (C. pepo) and 'The Wellington Boot' (C. moschata). I collected a good number of nice plump F1 seeds so I should have no trouble generating lots and lots of F2 seeds next season. Just a matter now of waiting. There's plenty in the garden to keep me busy though.
Some of you may know 'Australian Butter'. It's a good-sized pumpkin with lovely, dry, orange flesh and beautiful pinky orange rind. Quite a good keeper too. This is the first time I've grown it and I'm looking forward to tasting it.
Very few will have heard of 'The Wellington Boot'. It is a selection of 'Waltham Butternut' made over many years by a chap in Wellington NSW. In warmer climes the neck is considerably longer with fruit nearing a metre in length and is usually curved. The grower named it after an annual horse race in Wellington as he felt it would mean something to locals. He's getting on now and no longer gardens. His pumpkin is slowly developing a following. I thank him for sharing it with us.