Chinese Broccoli Seed Saving | Chinese Kale | Gai lan |
I grew some Chinese Broccoli/ Chinese Kale plants from seeds last year. These are very easy plants to grow. I enjoyed the harvest of florets and leaves from this plant in late winter but then as soon as spring starts caterpillars start attacking this plant. It becomes really tough to get any good leaves from kale in this season. At this time you can either remove this plant to make space for your new plants or keep it for seeds. I decided to keep it mainly as a trap crop. The plants like cabbage, mustard, or broccoli attract moths and butterflies. That way you can distract the pests away from your other plants. I believe that worked because surrounding plants were spared.
As soon as the temperature starts rising, Chinese kale plants bolt. From the green florets develop beautiful white flowers.
And then, the seedpods are formed. I decided to keep the plant because the flowers were attracting bees and other beneficial insects. Soon the seedpods started forming. The seedpods get bigger and then once matured they start turning yellow. You can wait for the pods to completely dry to get the properly developed seeds. But accidentally, one of the flowering branches broke and I had to harvest some seeds early.
I still have more seed pods on the plant that are not completely ready. You can see how the seeds are getting bigger. I will wait for them to dry completely before harvesting these remaining seeds. Now, I think it is time to harvest the pods for seeds.
If you have only a few seedpods as I have then just opened the seed pods on a plate and collect the seeds. If you have a lot of seeds to collect, then you can just crush the pods in between your palms over a container and tilt the plate/ container. The seeds will roll down near the bottom and you can collect them. You can then save the seeds in airtight bags or containers and store them in a cool, dry, and dark place.
The plant doesn’t stop producing yet. If you cut off the main stem, many sides shoots develop and start growing as new plants. My plant has started producing again and since there are no pests, I can enjoy my salad worry-free.
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