Brassica crosses

[Steph S]

Here below are some pics of the Purple Sprouting X Yod Fah Kai lan.
I started a couple dozen seed from the Purple Sprouting Kale below, back in November.   
I also got a pack of Red Spear PSB from Annapolis, so started some of those as a comparison.

So far, there is no sign that any of these are crossed with the Yod Fah.  All leaves are similar to the PSK type, and although there is some variation it could be from that unstable PSK line and not a YF cross.  The Red Spear PSB from Annapolis has an unruffled leaf, but I noticed that some sources shown in internet pics have a lot of ruffle.
I just started some of the reciprocal seed from the YF plant, to see whether there is any obvious cross there.  Leaf of the Kai Lan is very plain and oval, so if this shape is recessive then seedlings should be kaley-leaved if they crossed.

[Steph S]

And a few words about the mystery parentage and genetic status of "Purple Sprouting Kale".
I went through my seeds, and the package these came from was labeled Red Spear purple sprouting broccoli.  The seedlings though were an obviously mixed bag.  Two got potted up anyway, and the one I call "Purple Sprouting Kale" certainly looked like Kale to me, with very ruffled leaf, at least until the sprouts came out tinged purple. They weren't full purple like Red Spear pics.  The second plant, which was not involved in the cross, has a smoother leaf and some antho on stems and leaves.  It has a much smaller stature as well.  The sprouts on this had a tight curd and light purple color.  Lighter but similar to pics of Sicilian cauliflower.  One of the current seedlings from the PSK plant has a similar look, with some antho on lower leaf stems.  So it does look as though the two plants could actually be siblings of some filial generation and not unrelated crosses.

Last year's "Red Spear" siblings shown first, then this year's seedlings currently under lights.  The second one has a shorter stature and antho on lower leaves and petioles.
So these could simply be segregating and not crossed with YF.

White flowers are dominant in B. oleracea, so any white flowers on these would confirm the cross.  Anthocyanin is dominant but quantitative, so partial expression is expected unless the recessive allele is present to pair with the Kai Lan, so there may be some antho, some none.

[Steph S]

Seed germination still good on the MichRRKF2, I have more seedlings than intended and ready to pot up soon.
It's nice to see the antho segregating, easy to recognize in the small seedlings.

[Steph S]

The jury is in on the seedlings of the reciprocal cross: Yod Fah X Purple Sprouting Kale.
Evidently the frilly kale leaf is a dominant trait. 
It turned up in 4 of ten seedlings, so the rate of crossing around 40%, and I might expect similar in the PSK x YF, where the cross can't be identified by leaf shape and will have to wait for flowers. One of the four YFPSK has antho on the leaf stems, maybe a similar rate to what I'm seeing in the PSKYF.

[Steph S]

Update on the MichihilixRRK F2, which I think I should call "Napa-napus" to shorten the mouthful.

In spite of my fumbling oversowing ending in 60+ seedlings in half a 1020 tray, the top dogs in this group of seedlings got big enough to taste while still in their cellpacks. This is a nice plus for the winter/lights selection process.
 
It also became very clear that hairiness/prickliness is a dominant trait I want to avoid.  Many many prickly leaves here, seemingly variable in the amount at maturity, but happily I was able to identify some entirely  hairless plants.  Hard to do when they're small, I did make a couple of mistakes that had to be culled later, but now have a nice group of entirely smooth leaved napa-napus. I also pulled out some smaller ones after, so there is a second group on its way to taste size. The ratio of hairless leaves estimated 1/3 of the seedlings but just a rough estimate of 40+ crowded prickly leaved seedlings.
There are 8 plants from the first round of selection and another six of decent size coming on, plus 2 were benched for leaf spots maybe susceptibility traits and 4 are just too small to assess yet, whether that was due to crowding luck or actually lacking vigor.  So there are at least 14/20 good promising candidates with smooth leaves suitable for a multi-purpose green for salad as well as cooking, fast growing but also long standing.  That is more or less what I'm looking for.
 
A quick round of tasting the first hairless plants found little to distinguish between them, with the notable exception of one very 'turnipy'plant.  The others all had a neutral, 'dark greens' taste acceptable to me, with minor differences - a possible hint of astringency, bitterness, or sweetness that might develop into selectable characters with further growth and tasting, and with exposure to environmental stresses.  For now they are all being grown up for further evaluation. 

Leaf shapes are variable and seem to show a complex interaction of shape traits from the michihili and RRK parents: degree of 'frilliness', length/shape, etc with none looking exactly like either parent.

Anthocyanin expression is variable but detectable in 9 of 14 selected plants, (13 of 20 in the full hairless group) so looking like 64-65%.  There is some nice antho in the hairy group as well, looking violet like the RRK parent.  My thought is that any plant showing antho should segregate in the next generation and produce some plants with more intense antho in the F3?  Is that a reasonable assumption, or should I be pursuing the most antho of all, and hope to segregate for non-hairy leaves in the F3?
I am not sure at all about the recovery rate for quantitatively variable traits.

[Steph S]

Napa-napus update:
I have continued to taste select and potted up my favorites.  On repeat tasting I was able to identify the one that is sweeter than others, one with a peppery finish, and the slightly astringent one, which I now would call very nuanced and kaley.  Some tastes changed after leaving the lights and going to the greenhouse.  Some turnipy flavors disappeared, as also the bland similarity to one another.  So they are becoming more interesting but still a tough call.
I had several smaller plants under lights growing up to tasteable size, and took a pic before the last round of tasting.  The newly grown up plants were almost all eliminated/sidelined for boldly turnipy taste, but they're not compost yet!  Still up for second guessing.  One of them was taste approved and potted up, it has lots of antho and a spoon shaped leaf.  Most of the plants have very diluted antho as they get larger.  I rescued three very small and strongly antho plants from the furry lot, and potted to 4 inch pots, hoping that they might prove worthy.  But at this point I think not.  Giving it time.

Just one comment about the B. oleracea group, they are showing a lot of heat stress as the greenhouse pivots from freezing to 80F in sunshine, even the ones in large pots and well watered.  It is notable that the napa-napus are looking good and tolerating the extreme temperature shifts much better, so this may be a win trait for n-n, as well as the expected biennial non bolting habit and cold tolerance.

[Steph S]

Brassica rapa update:
The fast growing presumably Mizuna crossed F1 are finally starting to bolt after a few sunny days of 80F + in the greenhouse.  I'm excited about it because it's definitely a candidate for fastest growing greens when you need something to eat in 30 days.
This is another case where turnipy taste under the lights disappeared entirely out in the greenhouse; they have been quite mild tasting.  The stem has a good thickness from the MichxBokChoy parent, crunchy and quite curved like the shape of a celery stalk.  The two plants were crowded and I don't know how large they could've gotten in a bigger pot.
The last of their half siblings shown in the pic foreground, are two extremely bolt resistant plants that were leftovers in a cell pack and then a small pot under lights for months. None of the others were good enough to keep so they were eaten, and then these two got potted up. These are not anywhere near as good as the standard bok choy I'm growing, which is very nice tasting but also very prone to bolt.  I would consider crossing the standard bok choy with the michbok to select for the better taste and bolt resistance, but the Mizuna rogues are higher priority and I don't want them to overlap.
I'm not sure how the seed setting will go since we are still buried in snow outside and no insect helpers to pollinate.  Hopefully the second plant will bolt soon as well, and I can give them a good shake or so to help it along.

[Steph S]

Leaf color may be another 'tell' for crosses in the brassicas.
Granted that young leaves may tend to be a brighter green and less 'blue green' than mature sprouting broccoli or kale, the confirmed F1 of YFxPSK have notably greener shades than the older blue-green PSKx?YF.  There were differences in the PSKx?YF seedlings but may be due to another unknown parent in PSK line.
I just potted up a couple of Yod Fah and one of the YFxPSK F1 plants which have been sitting in 3 inch pots, to see how bolting times compare in the same treatment.  They are much brighter green than the Red Spear PSB.

[Steph S]

I'm also not seeing anything like a 'blue-green' color in the napanapus F2, although there's some variation.  I would say the color is weighted towards the cabbage parent for sure.  With only a dozen selected for lack of hairy barbs I am not seeing anything to call 'blue green' at all.

The most vigorous ones have quickly outgrown their pots.  They evidently want to be big like kale but shaped like cabbage, with fairly thick and juicy stems.  Also, with quite a few sunny days this past week and temperatures over 80F in the greenhouse, they were not so heat tolerant or happy in the pots which are now too small, and the mature leaves have become.. extremely flavorful.  Taste is a chameleon here, and hot weather = strong flavor.  Turnipy, kaley and pretty harsh even in the one marked sweetest.
It's too bad we are still snow covered, because they would like to be planted out or even stuck out by the door, for sure. The lack of available dirt is a bit more acute than I thought about when I dug into the greens projects this winter, but temperature timing seems like a key to flavor as well.

I do still have a trio of plants with salad potential, however they are slower growing and still smaller.  Time will tell if they can hang on to that designation. One of these three also has the nicest antho so far, a darker leaf with light violent extending into it.  Two of them have a light peppery edge, rather like arugula and not at all unpleasant.  The other is grassy and not as juicy a leaf, but it was just potted up from a three inch so will see how that develops.  Small pots did not prevent other seedlings from getting strong kaley or turnipy flavors, so I am still hopeful these could turn into salad greens.

[Steph S]

Some buds are starting to come on the PSKx, mostly green and the shape is kale-like; a bit irregular with some larger buds pushing through.  One interesting plant with a bit of antho and a tighter curd, almost looking like mini cauliflowers with the leaf curling over the tops.  There are no buds on the true Red Spear PSB as yet.

[Steph S]

Here is the bud of the antho PSK when fully formed.  And the first bud has appeared on the Red Spear parent - surprisingly very white with just a little antho, so it has a way to go yet to develop.

[Steph S]

There is a lot of bolting happening now, the MichBokMizuna is half done and has already set some seed, the Blues napa F2s all bolted simultaneously without any difference in those kept back in small pots or fully grown in large, the bolt resistant, turnipy MichBok pair finally bolted, and several of the napanapus have started to bolt as well.  I thought I was going to keep them all separate but...  I must have missed a cocoon and there's been a dedicated cabbage butterfly in the greenhouse for the last week.  Dedicated, for a butterfly, means it will perch on one blossom only before flying off to the other end of the greenhouse to perch on one blossom, then back and forth etc.

I ran into this exciting project - Gulag Stars kale bred by Tim Peters.  A rapa-napus mix, more diverse than my simple cross and leaning more towards the kales.
https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/product/vegetables/kale/kale-gulag-stars-organic/
This made me think that a bit of butterfly crossing milder tasting rapas into the 'kaley cabbage' wouldn't be a bad thing.  I really like the textures - stem crispness is super and leaf very tender - but the consensus of tasters was 'stir fry material' better cooked than salad.  I would like to nudge it towards salad greens that are also useful wilted or in stir fry.
One group got moved outdoors, after spotting a lone bewildered bumblebee out there in the cold, but more are coming on.  Only a couple of my favorites are still leaf only.  So I guess if I want biennial habit, I will have to look for it in the next generation.

Some sprawling bud shapes in the napanapus.

[Steph S]

Update on the Purple Sprouting Kale X Yod Fah Kailan.
All of these plants have been outdoors for some time, and since it's been very, persistently cold they are showing all the antho that they have.  Many purple leaves and stems, and the buds on purple ones are truly purple.
One of the extra plants which languished late in a 3 inch pot and was stuck in one of the bee garden beds has turned out to be the PSK x YF, with white flowers and purple buds.  The others that were potted up later have not made a bud yet (intermediate DTM between PSB and Gailan is not very convenient).  In the purple sprouting kales there's a range of color from no antho at all to the best of the bunch having a purple-blue bud.  There is also a big range of taste in the PSK, from nice and sweet to kaley strong and pretty well offensive.  Not worth eating compared with the nice ones.

This was an interesting project from the POV of learning a bit about how the brassica genetics play out, but I don't expect to devote much time and space to this in future, mainly because it required too much time and space to be a good fit for my growing cycle.  I'm not a huge broccoli fan, finding them on the tough side compared to Kailan (and maybe the greenhouse extremes didn't help with that), as well as taking more time and space than was really feasible.  If I do get seeds from the cross, I'm not sure how feasible it would be to grow the numbers necessary to select hard for the earliness as well as tenderness, color and flavor, and something closer to a purple kailan.  Not a high priority but I might grow a few seeds just for curiosity.

[Cathy A]

I enjoy eating broccoli, but haven't had a lot of success growing them, so I've turned my attention elsewhere. They would require too much time, space, and attention that I can't spare either.

If only there were a broccoli that grew as well as kale does in my climate!

[Steph S]

Kailan is a great substitute for broccoli, IMO, and so much easier to grow.
I really like Yu Choy as well, for the even faster B. rapa version of sweet tender stems and buds.