Useful information

Getting your own white cabbage seeds

If you liked a certain variety of white cabbage, and you are not sure that you can buy seeds again in the new season, know that the seeds of the variety you like can be obtained in your own garden. To do this, you need to grow queen cells and collect seeds from them. It makes no sense to do this only with F1 hybrids - they split in the offspring and the characteristics of the variety are not preserved.

Uterus - This is a cabbage plant of the first year of life with a vegetative bud (head of cabbage, heads of cabbage, stem plant).

Testes - these are cabbage plants of the second year of life, immediately after the mother plants are planted in the ground and during the formation of generative organs (flowers, seeds).

Only healthy, highest quality, or "elite" heads of cabbage of the variety that is supposed to be propagated are selected for mother plants, better than middle-late and late varieties. They are better preserved until planting next year. From "elite" cabbage it is required that the head of cabbage constitutes the largest possible mass of the whole plant, and the stump and outer green leaves constitute the smallest possible part. Therefore, undersized plants with a thin stump, short petioles and few outer leaves near the head of cabbage are selected for the mother plants. Of the flat-round varieties, the most flat are chosen, since they tend to degenerate into rounded shapes.

Cleaning must be done before frost. If the plants are frozen at -5оС, then with harvesting it is necessary to wait about a week for the plants to "move away" from the effects of freezing. When choosing a mother plant, it is better to give preference to plants grown by direct sowing of seeds into the ground. These plants have a shorter stump, a more powerful root system, they are more resistant to bacteriosis and are better stored. The mothers are harvested with a root system and a clod of earth. They dip the roots of plants in a clay mash, break off the rosette leaves, leaving 2-3 coverts, and store them in the basement separately from food supplies, at a temperature of + 1 + 2oC. If the temperature drops below 0 ° C, the mother liquors will freeze and after planting they will get sick, and if the temperature rises to + 10 ° C, then a bunch of leaves will grow instead of peduncles. Plants are hung or folded into collars. 30 days before planting, the temperature is raised to + 5 ° C, this is especially important for late-ripening varieties. It is better not to disturb or peel the cabbage during storage.

The next year, at the end of March - beginning of April, the mother plants are prepared for planting. Plants are examined and cleaned of decayed roots, then the head of cabbage is cut into a cone so that its diameter at the bottom is 12-20 cm. 2-3 weeks before planting in the ground, the cabbage stumps are grown and lightened. They are stacked in the light in stacks with their roots inward and layered with humus or peat poured with slurry. The stacks are placed in the open air, protecting them from drying out, freezing and steaming.

In central Russia, especially in the northern regions, the cold period of the year is very long and it is extremely difficult or impossible to preserve the mother liquors. Experienced gardeners use a different method. In order to preserve the main or terminal bud when stumping, which always gives stronger stems than lateral buds, the whole stump is cut out of the stump using a long knife. The stumps for obtaining seeds are stored in the basement. They are planted in the fall in pots with good soil. They root well during storage and give offspring. In the spring they are planted without any damage to the roots. Plants pampered in the basement should be shaded for the first time from the direct sun.

For testes, areas with fertile soil are allocated, which are freed from snow earlier than others. In autumn, for digging, they are fertilized with manure or compost 4-6 kg / m2. In the spring, phosphorus (20 g / m2) and potash fertilizers (10 g / m2) are applied. Nitrogen fertilizers are given in top dressing as needed, 15-20 g / m2.

The testes are planted on the prepared site in late April and early May. At a later planting, they take root worse, the seed yield decreases. Before planting, the roots are dipped in a creamy mixture of clay and mullein (1: 1) with the addition of Fitosporin-M.

Planting is carried out according to the scheme 70x50 cm. Fertilizers are applied to the holes: 300-400 g of compost or humus and 25 g of superphosphate. Everything is mixed well with the soil. They plant the stump obliquely, much deeper than it grew in the first year of life, under the very head of cabbage and compact the earth at the roots. Plants are watered and protected at first from sunburn and frost. During the growth of seed plants, plantings are watered, loosened, weeded and fed. The first time they are fed two weeks later with a mullein solution, spending 2-3 liters per plant. The second time - before flowering with nitrophos or nitroammophos (20-30 g / m2). After two weeks, the stalks of old leaves are removed from the plant in order to avoid the development of rot. Watering is carried out regularly and in moderation. At the beginning of flowering, the bushes are spud and tied to supports. Sick or non-flowering shoots are periodically removed.

Plants often form rather large shoots on which all the seeds will not have time to ripen. So that they do not weaken the plants, after tying a sufficient number of pods, unnecessary "tails" are cut off from the peduncles. Sometimes many more stems appear than the plant is able to feed. The weaker ones are removed, like all offspring, from the bottom of the stump.

The testes bloom within 25-30 days, the seeds ripen in 40-50 days. The growing season of the testes is 90-130 days. Pods are harvested selectively, you should not wait for the mass ripening of seeds, otherwise the first, best seeds will spill out of the cracked pods. One plant can get 50 g of seeds. They are removed from the pods and dried.

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