I started seed saving last year and have several types of beans and peas which are self fertile and so reitively reliable. But I now have some kale I want to keep. So a got rid of the flowers of any brassicas that were flowering mostly purple sprouting broccoli and some salad leafy thing.
Then I suddenly realised that there were masses of brassicas about, honesty, wallflowers, cress etc etc. Does anyone know whether these will cross pollinate with my Kale.
Yes, brassicas are prolifically promiscuous... :'(
can you isolate the flowers?
Yes very fine mesh over the plants and you need several to avoid "inbreeding problems" then release bluebottles or the like once the flowers open, if they have opened you're too late...
Drat. The kale was very nice. I shall have to fleece it up and handpollinate somehow. Many thanks for your hlep. Don't fancy the blue bottle bit.
The flowers have opened but if I cut them off quickly hopefully the plants will make some more.
you just buy some maggots and put them in a covered tray... they pupate and do the bus.. no hand pollinating. The mesh is to keep them in and the others out I think technically they are "blowflies" the covered tray is to stop them drowning if it rains!! :)
Noe don't fancy the blue bottle either :P What happens if i just let them do as they like?
you get allsorts.... :-X
Caught it in time. :)
Only about 10% of the flowers had opened and I have now snipped them all off. ;D
Its the maggots that I don't fancy.
I am not sure what would be the result of a cross between honesty and kale. Pink flowered kale with large seed pods perhaps. Did have a cross between large leaved cress and candy tuft. It had huge leaves and huge flowers heads on large stems.
Should have stabilised it and sold it to a flower seed company... :)
I am much moire interested in the large leaved cress. It also just turned up. It is delicious and also deters slugs, they do not seem to like it so I grew it round my runner beans. When the beans take off I just hoe it in.
Excellent, isolate it and develop anew green manure!!! 8)
I am gradually getting more seed. It started with only one plant.
I once let a turnip go to seed, and grew the seedlings on. I did nothing to prevent cross pollination, and got a crop of turnips. Since we're talking about allotments not field scale crops, I suspect another brassica would have to be pretty close to have any real chance of crossing. You might have to rogue out the odd one, but you'd probably get away with it.
I thought that bees flew for miles. There is not much in flower down at the allotments right now, but there is a nature reserve next door and a housing estate just beyond, all certainly within a bee line. Not to mention Jack by the hedge in the hedge beside my allotment. Smells like onion but I have just looked it up and it is a brassica.
Bees fly for miles when they want to. If you're thinking of honeybees, they stick rigidly to a single type of flower at a time. This sort of cross-pollination is likely to be down to non-specific pollinators; other bees, flies, etc. On a particular jpourtney, they're only going to cover a very limited area. They may do a bit of cross-pollination, but experience suggests that it's going to be limited. So how fussy are you about having the odd mis-crossed plant?
I have noticed that bees stick to one type of flower at a time. Not much good when you want some action with the runner beans, they seem to be much more interested in the blackberry.
Seemed to have posted that half way through ;D
Are you saying that you think that I can leave my kale to it and then rogue out the seedlings to remove anything unusual. I am not aiming for purity
I very strongly suspect you can. Try it and let us know!
Blackberry is a major honey plant; it pfovides most of my crop. The bees love it. Runner beans normally have flowers which have the honey at the bottom of a tube which is too long for honey bees. Occasionally a crop has been reported, so there may be exceptions when the flowers are smaller. Mostly they're pollinated by bumblebees, but sometimes, instead of pollinating the flower, they bite their way in at the back to get the nectar. Once they've done this, the honeybee can follow suit.
QuoteWhat happens if i just let them do as they like?
Assuming that the original kale was a true strain rather than a hybrid I think you would get more than 90% true to type from the seed. Most pollination is from the immediate vicinity now that hive bees are few and far between.
Also, if the original kale plant was exceptional, leave it to grow on if it will and remove any side shoots for cuttings. This will keep the purity of the strain.
I doubt very much whether wallflowers and honesty will cross with kale but who knows? Someone invented ornamental cabbages already.
As for hive bees, I've seen them happily going from flower to flower regardless of type and I think their behaviour will vary according to the efficiency of the harvesting operation. If they know there is a field of r
ape seed down the lane they will not waste time working a foxglove on the way.
Many thanks for you comments, sorry I had to leave the computer and lost the plot at bit,