Early Selection In A new Project

Hey Joseph, I've spoken here and on another forum about a project I started to make a crop of Brassica oleracea for fresh greens to be harvested during times when it is too cold for issues with cabbage fly larva  and that is reliably winter hardy.

By adjusting when I start seeds to late summer rather than spring I had fantastic success with seed production this year and expect to harvest an abundance in the next couple of weeks. Also fantastic success in production of very delicious stalks, leaves and flower heads.

I started with a large collection of types and did not track anything but I am fairly positive that those producing the largest number of side shoots and therefore the most harvestable food are Brussels spouts mothers.

There is one big exception to that and I believe is the cabbage variety, January King. Also while nearly all plants survived winter one particular January King plant was the most robust. It stayed as a low to the ground rosette all winter, looked like a big wrinkled bluish colored dandelion and almost completely shrugged off the cold while most other plants were burned a little around the edges. It also is the largest of all seed producing plants and the most productive of the side shoots, even outpacing the nice Brussels sprouts.

Now for the rub, it is also the one and only plant with a less appealing flavor so I'm curious what you would do with this plant. I of course want the winter hardiness it carries and the massive production but not the flavor. It isn't really bad flavored except in comparison to the the others, I would probably have found it delightful except in that comparison.

This is the first year of this mix up and that plant is so big I'm sure it's pollen is well distributed in the population. Also of course it's seeds are crossed randomly to the other plants.  I might  lose any maternal characteristics if I do so but I'm considering not including it's seeds in my planting this summer.

Also the closest neighbors to this plant in the patch are two purple colored plants that are far far smaller than it is but much more tasty, almost a sweet asparagus like flavor, presenting all kind of implications for selection.   What do you think?  Is it too early to start selection in this project or should I let the whole mess cross up some more and start selection nest year?

Here is what some of these plants looked like in early March after resuming growth and being hit with - 7 F. I was afraid I might lose them but they shrugged it off.    

Mark: I routinely make trade-offs in my selection work. For example, I am selecting for parsnips with turnip-shaped root, because they are easier to dig in the fall in my hard clay soil. The most robust parsnip plants this year were wedge shaped instead of turnip shaped. Productivity was awesome. So I couldn't just toss the best performing plants. I ended up growing two patches of seed separated by about 100 feet. A wedge shaped patch, and a turnip-shaped patch. I intend to plant both lots of seed, and see where it goes. Because pollination is highly localized, most of the plants in each patch will be pollinated by other plants of the same type.

That fully winter hardy rosette, close to the ground, sounds awesome! You can always select among the offspring for better flavor. I am working on winter hardy lettuce. I'm liking the rosettes that stay close to the ground.

Sometimes, the plants tell me what they want... I thought that I wanted a pure white flour corn. The corn insisted that was the wrong choice.