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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Broccolini mystery

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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Broccolini mystery
  • Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 12:17:17 -0500

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 11:11:53 EST, you wrote:

>The owner is Sakata, from Salinas by way of Japan. I checked with their
>distributors list, and none carry it. Too bad, I think - it's great stuff, I
>
>agree. Since it's a broccoli and Gai Lan cross, a guy from Oz suggested
>planting
>them together and seeing what seeds develop. That might be some fun...

Maybe you could help them cross ...

Suzanne Ashworth's 'Seed to Seed' says "broccoli and
cauliflower will cross with all other varieties within the
huge _Brassica oleracea_ species, which includes all
cabbages (except Chinese cabbage), Brussels sprouts, kale,
collards and kohlrabi, as well as with each other."

Chinese kale - gai lan - is also a B. oleracea, so they
should cross OK.

Since, according to Ashworth, most broccoli is
self-incompatible (i.e., needs another plant to pollinate
and produce seeds), you could almost ensure that they would
only cross with each other by growing one of each together,
caged with introduced pollinators (caged to exclude
pollination from other plants).

They are biennials, though, you'd need to overwinter them
first or cause them to undergo some other process of
vernalization.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in doing this, I recommend
they get a copy of 'Seed to Seed'.

Tricky stuff, but it would really be fun to do. And if you
succeeded in getting a terrific new vegetable: Wow. :)

Pat
--
ContainerSeeds.com - vegetable, herb, fruit and edible
flower seeds for successful container growing.
http://www.containerseeds.com




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