Even the types that form a strong head are still somewhat open-leafed, and pests seem to love them, so row cover is a real plus. But they are very fun to grow when all goes well!Īsian cabbage, generally known as Chinese or napa cabbage (“napa” is from Japanese for leaf vegetable), is usually somewhat quicker-growing than its European equivalent, but less tolerant of cold early spring temperatures when it’s young. Heavy rains can cause the heads to split, and rollercoaster temperatures can make the plant give up and bolt before heads form. The tight heads mean that caterpillars and other pests don’t penetrate to the center, but they will make a mess of the outer leaves and often the bottom of the head, so row covers are still a good idea. I suggest concentrating on the modern quicker-growing varieties for spring, especially those with smaller heads, and the hardy storage types for fall. There are a bunch of types (red, savoy, and green/white in various shapes). This is a big plant, which we don’t always realize when we buy the head in the market, and needs to be widely-spaced in the garden. European cabbage tends to be more tightly-formed, with a firm head surrounded by more open leaves that spread out widely. Depending on your cultural background, you may regard one of them as cabbage (or choy) and the other as an interesting foreign dish, but they’re really not that different: both leafy vegetables that developed into a heading form. capitata, and the Asian cabbage, Brassica rapa subsp. There are two kinds of cabbage that have completely separate origins: the European cabbage, Brassica oleracea var. Those heads would have been loose to begin with, and only over time and through breeding became what we now call cabbage. One of those traits must have been the tendency for leaves to curl in on themselves and form a head. What that probably meant was that people gathering or growing the plants spotted a mutated form, thought it had value, and collected the seeds to grow more of it, gradually refining the new trait. Wild leafy plants developed into the wide range of forms the Brassica genus encompasses today in two ways: natural mutation, and breeding by human farmers. Let’s step back for a moment and think about plant evolution. I recommend trying it if you’re an adventurous gardener! Tronchuda is a decorative plant with broad white ribs in large green leaves, used for traditional soup recipes, that is not very cold-hardy but can take summer heat (up to a point). costata, known as Portuguese kale, tronchuda, Portuguese cabbage, or sea kale (which is also the common name of another plant, Crambe maritima, also in the Brassicaceae family). Similar to both kale and collards is Brassica oleracea var. They tend to be both cold-hardy and hold well in the heat, though that varies depending on cultivar. What are collards and how are they different from flat-leafed kale? The distinction is difficult and sometimes more culturally-based than anything else, but collards have been broken out from the Acephala Group into their own Viridis Group. Yellow Cabbage Collards in the garden and on the counter with full color developed At least you can read about it.) My favorite kind to grow and eat is the blue bumpy type known as Tuscan, Lacinato, or Dinosaur kale. (I wish we could grow that kind here, but our heat and humidity don’t agree with it. oleracea kales are amazingly varied, having been bred for millennia into forms with curly leaves, flat leaves, small or enormous leaves, leaves with blue and purple tints, the cabbagey-looking ornamental kale that landscapers plant at the corner to carry through the winter, and kale that forms stems taller than people that are made into walking sticks. acephala(or Acephala Group), but the super-hardy kales like Red Russian and Siberian are Brassica napus var. The kales we grow today are actually not all one species. The lineage of these wild plants is still fairly obscured, but if you want to read more about it check out this scholarly article. They would have looked something like what we know as kale. This is likely the home of the wild relatives of what became the domesticated forms of Brassica oleracea. I think the best place to start is on the shores of the Mediterranean. In this edition we’re going to explore the plants in the genus Brassica that are grown for edible leaves. Welcome back to Beyond Broccoli, the brassica blog series! You can find previous entries here.
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