Red cabbage

Firstly apologies this is a ridiculous question     .

Can I save seeds from this red drumhead cabbage?

   

2 reasons for the stupid question.
 1 the flowers are more like side shoots coming from the neck rather than a flower spike coming from the centre of the head.
 2 real seeds on there seed saving page say save from 20 different individuals! I don’t have space to grow 20 red cabbage just for seed saving!

Do cabbages need a pollination partner? I'm not sure but do you need two or more?

Do cabbages need a pollination partner? I'm not sure but do you need two or more?

I’d not thought of that. I do have a second one doing the same thing just out of shot. It’s not quite as close to flowering.

I know Real Seeds recommend something crazy like 20 plants if saving brassica seeds, which is why I have no plans to do so! They reckon that you get too much inbreeding unless you have a decent number of plants.

https://realseeds.co.uk/brassicaseedprocessing.html

You know my motto, SC. Try it and see!

I've been leaving a single Red Russian kale to grow in the GH. Its been there a couple of years, it flowers, sets seeds, seedlings grow same as parent. In fact, its flowering now and the bees love it.

   

Here's one of the self-seeded offspring. A tenacious soul who decided to grow outside the bed with his roots horizontal under the bed edge. The path is part of the GH base so the roots can't go down!
I'm in awe of its will to live so have left it there as a reward.

Another option you could try is to use those side shoots as cuttings and root them. Take off the flower heads, put the shoots in water and wait for the roots. Pot them up and see what happens! I've done it with Primo cabbage and kale.

That’s a very determined little fella. How did you get on with your cabbage & kale side shoot cuttings, a good crop of leaves? I’m guessing you didn’t get a full head of cabbage   .

Don't think I've ever managed a Full head of cabbage - some beastie seems to get there and ruin it for me!

These kale were grown from sideshoots and I'll be taking off the lower shoots soon to grow more. These kale are several years old (remember my Kale Forest???)

   

They look fantastic.

What you could do is sow a fair few seeds in a largish pot and weed them down to to best looking 15 to 20 plants as they grow. then plant it out somewhere and eventually collect the seeds from them. They won't be able to grow massive but their seeds should be the same as if they had i would think, particularly if you thin them out after the seeds have set.

They can still grow quite large like this though as I once had about 5 PSB in a 4inch pot and had left it till the roots were all entwined. So I planted it as it was and they grew to about normal size but flopped over in different directions taking up quite a bit of room - but less than if i had planted them out individually.