Offering a free proto-grex of cabbage seeds!

As an easily storable green vegetable, cabbage is a very valuable crop. But I've always found the available OP varieties to be somewhat wimpy. That might not be surprising, given that brassicas are particularly susceptible to inbreeding depression. Also, there are relatively few varieties of cabbage available, compared with other vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, melons, and squash.

This situation has inspired me to start a cabbage landrace, and I'm looking for collaborators! I am offering a proto-grex of 16 different cabbage varieties (listed below) to anyone in the USA who is willing to plant them this year for overwintering, who will keep them isolated from other B. oleracea (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, many kales, and kohlrabi) while they are flowering and who will return some of the harvested seed. Eventually, I hope to offer the resulting grex through https://goingtoseed.org/.

PM me your address if you would like to participate, and let me know if you have any questions.

If you are worried about your ability to isolate them from other B. oleracea, remember that time isolation can work. I’m planning to save seed from a broccoli grex in addition to the cabbages, but I will simply eat any broccoli shoots that would overlap with the flowering of the cabbage.

The following varieties are included in the mix:

The Peace Seedlings Belarus Cabbage Grex
Primax
January King
Chieftain Savoy
Amarant
Testa Di Ferro
Charleston Wakefield
Glory of Enkhuizen
Amager
Futog
Danish Ballhead
Mammoth Red Rock
Winter King Savoy
Red Acre
Golden Acre
Brunswick

The cabbage grex will probably develop in different directions, depending on the interests and preferences of the individual growers. But my own interest is focused on two traits: overwintering, and resistance to cabbage aphids.

The first is pretty basic; if a cabbage doesn't overwinter, it doesn't produce seeds. Some growers take lots of trouble to overwinter their cabbages, including digging up the whole plant and moving it to a root cellar. But I will be selecting for plants that overwinter in the garden with mulch. Also, since the cabbage head itself just tends to rot, I will be eating the heads, while leaving the outer leaves and stems for overwintering, and selecting for plants that overwinter well like this.

In my garden, cabbage aphids are the biggest problem for brassicas; they stunt the plants and distort the growing tips, and even if the cabbage survive, they tend to be an unpleasant mass of aphids inside. Two of the varieties I included in the grex are supposed to be somewhat cabbage aphid resistant.

Hi!! I don't know if it is too late, but I would love to start on a cabbage grex this fall! Let me know if you are still offering

Yeah, this was one of the most exciting thread-starts last year, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. I'm hoping a bunch of people PMed you and the project has been a roaring success. I'd love to hear more if you got any traction.

The project is still ongoing. I distributed cabbage seeds to around 20 people; of those, at least three of them now have maturing cabbage seed crops. Some people's plants died either last fall or overwinter, but they are willing to try again next year. If all goes well, the seeds we harvest will be distributed through Going to Seed and also to members of the informal network.