Tokyo Bekana—a fertile F1 hybrid?

[Gilbert Fritz]

Over the last few years, I've been growing Tokyo Bekana, a beautiful, tasty Asian B. rapa green. Since I liked it, I decided to grow some out for seed. I didn't pay too much attention to it while it was growing; once it was dry, I harvested a bunch of stalks and put them in a container. Being very busy, I still haven't got it threshed out, but there are certainly seeds in the pods. It did strike me as being a rather low seed yield for the number of plants.

I've just noticed that Johnny's lists Tokyo Bekana as an F1, something I must have glossed over. Does the production of seeds mean that it is male-fertile? (I didn't have any other B. rapa varieties flowering at the same time.) If so, how would a commercial seed company produce such a hybrid in a cost-effective manner?

[Steph S]

I see Tokyo Bekana listed elsewhere as an OP and heirloom.

[Diane Whitehead]

The Garden Seed Inventory of the Seed Savers Exchange lists all non-hybrid vegetable seeds available in North America.  My edition, published in 2004, says this about Tokyo Bekana:

Japanese version of Pe Tsai    Brassica rapa, Chinensis Group

[galina gardiner]

Real Seeds in UK sell it.  And they do not sell any hybrid vegetables only OP. https://www.realseeds.co.uk/orientalgreens.html