Saving Cabbage Seeds For Future Planting

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If you’ve decided to plant cabbage seeds, it’s best to choose heirloom, non-GMO seeds. These will yield the best produce, and the cabbage seeds can be saved and re-used in the future.

Although cabbages are best when used immediately after harvest, it’s a good idea to save a few in the root cellar, both for table use and seed-saving. Make sure to dig up any storage cabbages and put them in pots in the cellar before the weather gets really cold – 20 degrees is a good benchmark. Frost-damaged cabbages will rot quickly, so if you’re interested in having some for eating in addition to saving cabbage seeds, you should cover up a small plot in the garden at night.

Even frost-damaged cabbages can still be valuable if you’re trying to save cabbage seeds for subsequent planting. Either cold or humidity can cause outer leaves to rot; peel away all the damaged layers and often you’ll find a perfect cabbage underneath. They should be perfectly fine for you to seven months or more if they’re stored in nursery containers.

Once planting time comes, you can grow a cabbage crop with just the root and a small segment of stem, where dormant buds are found that will sprout and go to seed. Make sure to eat the cabbage heads last, since once they’re “decapitated,” cabbage stems will rot very quickly. Any cabbage planted with an intact head should have an “x” incised on the top in order to permit the flower stalk to emerge.

Some loose-headed varieties of cabbages, such as savoys and collards, require a special planting for a seed crop: They need to be timed so that small plants with little heads will emerge just before the killing frost descends. Once dug up, these plants should be stripped down to a head about the size of a baseball, and then be potted and stored like other varieties.

One head will provide plenty of cabbage seeds. Everything in the cruciferous family needs cross-pollination, which means that at least two will be necessary in order to get a crop, and each cabbage variety has to be segregated from all other cabbages as well as any other brassicas. Plant geneticists recommend a minimum of 20 plants of vegetables like onions, leeks, or brassicas in order to grow a successful, stable multi-generation crop. This may be a bit too ambitious for casual farmers or urban homesteaders. If this is the case, it will still be possible to save cabbage seeds for a generation or two before genetic quality begins to erode and it becomes necessary to replenish the stock of fresh cabbage seeds.

About the Author:
If you'd like to learn more about the benefits of growing heirloom seeds go to http://www.eldoradoheirloomseeds.com
for our FREE resources including our guide to heirloom garden seeds or visit: http://www.cabbageseeds.net



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