How to get cabbage seeds yourself at home

To figure out how to get cabbage seeds, you will have to study the botanical description of the plant.

A familiar and beloved vegetable is just an overgrown apical bud in which nutrients are deposited. Where does the shoot with peduncles form in the second year.

The real fruit of cabbage is a pod with 20-26 angular-round brown seeds.

Self-collecting cabbage seeds allows vegetable growers to provide themselves with a large amount of high quality seed and proven varieties.

Wrong testis

Sometimes it happens that a plant of this crop in the first vegetative year suddenly took and released an escape with flowers. Those who decide to collect such seeds from cabbage for further planting are usually extremely dissatisfied. Seeds show poor germination, sprouts are weak, most do not set heads.

Cabbage is a biennial plant and must go through all stages of development for normal fruiting.

Therefore, a vegetable grower who decides to get cabbage seeds at home needs to:

correctly choose mother liquors;
dig up queen cells in time and create conditions for vernalization;
prepare overwintered heads for planting;
prepare the soil and plant the stalks in the ground;
take care of the seed plants all season, hill up, water, tie up and remove extra shoots;
collect mature pods in time.

Matochnik

Before growing cabbage seeds, it is necessary to select and correctly send queen cells for wintering. Among the harvest ready for harvest, you need to notice the most beautiful he althy heads of cabbage with the following characteristics:

not overgrown;
most consistent with the variety grown;
not overfed with nitrogen;
the strongest;
on a thin outer stalk;
heaviest relative to the weight of the rest of the plant.

The selected heads of cabbage are carefully dug up together with the root before the first frost. The cabbage leaves are cut off, leaving 2-3 near the head itself and sprinkled with wood ash or chalk. It is advisable to dip the rhizome in a clay mash to avoid drying out.

Important! If the plants have fallen under an early frost, then they are left in the ground for another week to recover.

Vernalization

Mother cells are laid out or hung in a dark basement with a temperature of 1-2 ℃ for the whole winter. Cabbage, for normal fruiting, must undergo vernalization. If the temperature is above 6-8 ℃, the metabolism in the head will not slow down and the process of formation of generative organs will not start.

With further planting, instead of flower stalks, the plant will simply give out a large number of leaves. In winter, it is better not to disturb the heads of cabbage, to minimize exposure to light. A month before the planned landing, the temperature in the storage facility is slightly increased to +5-6 ℃.

Preparation of mother liquor for planting

At the end of March, the queen cells take out and cut off the stalk in the form of a cone. At the bottom, a base of 15-20 cm is left and pointed upwards. They inspect the rhizome, remove rotten areas.

Then the future testicles need to be "awakened" and germinated:

the roots of cut stalk are dipped in slurry;
stacked root down;
sprinkle with peat or humus;
leave outdoors for 2-3 weeks, protecting from frost.

Landing

Time for planting queen cells varies between late April and early May. And it is better not to be late, otherwise the flowering time will be in too hot weather for cabbage. The optimum temperature for pollen germination of this crop is 15-21 ℃. Therefore, the sooner the stalk begins to take root and shoot, the better.

Cabbage easily tolerates cold snaps and, with timely covering with straw and non-woven fabric, normally tolerates light frosts.

In one small area, you can plant seed plants of only one variety of cabbage. Otherwise, all plants will be pollinated by bees. There should be at least 500 meters between plantings of different varieties.

The soil is prepared nutritious, filled with organic matter and mineral fertilizers.

"Awakened" stalks are planted a little deeper than heads of cabbage grew in autumn. The plant will produce new lateral roots. Cabbage is watered abundantly and covered for a couple of weeks under a layer of straw or light non-woven.

After two weeks, the protection can be removed and the plants fed with organic (1:10 slurry solution, 3 liters per seed) or mineral fertilizers (nitroammophoska, nitrophoska).

Repeat top dressing before flowering. Plants require standard care, like regular cabbage seedlings: hilling, weeding, watering, loosening.

Another way to save mother liquor

It is practically impossible to save mother liquors from early cabbage varieties in the usual way. But experienced gardeners have found a way:

cut out the entire stalk and store in the basement;
planted in pots with nutritious soil mixture since autumn;
storage seedlings in a dark basement at 1-2℃, like regular mother liquors.

With this method, the stalk takes root well over the winter, and the apical bud remains he althy. In the spring, they carefully transfer to open ground without disturbing the earthen coma.

Plants always shade at first.

This cultivation of queen cells is also well suited for the northern regions of the central strip of our country. Too long winter cold makes it difficult to keep he althy heads in the usual way.

Flowering and collecting seeds

A properly overwintered mother liquor after planting begins to form long shoots, on which flowers then bloom. Such a plant is called a testis.

The most he althy seed material can be obtained from the central shoots grown from the apical bud. Side shoots are cut off, leaving only the strongest if necessary. The plant may not overpower too much ovary. Therefore, weak and too late shoots are also removed. So that the long stems do not break off and fall down, it is advisable to tie them up.

The pods ripen at different times within 30-50 days. It is important not to miss the moment and not let the very first seeds wake up on the ground. They will produce the strongest and he althiest seedlings in the future.

Before collecting the seeds from the pods, they are tied into small sheaves and hung to dry. For a season from one plant, you can get 30-50 g of he althy seed. The collected seeds are stored in paper or fabric bags for 3-4 years.