Collard Seeds - North Carolina Ultracross - Sow True Seed

Collard Seeds - North Carolina Ultracross

$4.75

Description
Planting Info
How to Grow
Saving Seeds

Brassica oleracea

The North Carolina Collard Cross was developed across the 2024-2025 biennial season. Part of the ‘Collard Atlas', Utopian Seed Project’s collaboration with researcher Chris Keeve, this cross is the result of cross-pollination between 13 different collard varieties collected from North Carolina, including Nobling, North Carolina Yellow, Willis, Fuzzy’s Cabbage Collard, Old Timey Blue, William Moore, Minnie Mizelle, Ellen Felton, Hard Headed Cabbage Collard, Susan Turner, Brickhouse Old, EB Paul, and Bill’s Pea Ridge. They were stewarded by farmers and gardeners across the state as well as grown together at Tierra Negra Farm in Durham, North Carolina, before being processed and threshed at a seedkeeping workshop led by Chris Keeve at Duke Campus Farm.

Most of these varieties were stewarded in backyards, gardens, and small farms for years before seed accessions from each found their way through USDA vaults, Seed Savers Exchange, and the Heirloom Collard Project. This dozen is only a small fraction of the diversity of collards across North Carolina and across the U.S. South more broadly. This grow out was part of a larger experiment to better understand the connections between people, plants, and place, honoring the stories of the foods that make regions and inviting people to cultivate new stories of their own.

1.75 gram packet contains a minimum of 250 seeds.

SMALL FARM GROWN by Utopian Seed Project and Chris Kevee

Minimum Seeds per Packet: 250

Packet Weight: 1.75 g

Planting Season: Spring or Fall

Sowing Method: Direct Seed or Transplant

Seed Depth: 1/4"

Direct Seed Spacing: 1-2"

Soil Temperature: 40-85 ℉

Days to Sprout: 5-17

Mature Spacing: 8-12"

Sun Requirement: Full Sun

Frost Tolerance: Frost Tolerant

Days to Harvest: 70

When to Seed Collards

Collards are a cool-weather crop that can be planted in spring or fall. Start collards up to ten weeks ahead of your last frost date. Collards can be transplanted outdoors as early as four to six weeks ahead of your last frost date. For a fall harvest, direct seed collards into your garden up to three months before your first frost. This cold-hardy crop will germinate in soil temperatures as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Where to Plant Collards

Whether seeding or transplanting into the garden, choose a location with full sun. Prepare your soil ahead of time by mixing compost and organic matter into the planting area.

Growing Collards

Plant seeds ¼ inch deep and, if direct seeding, one to two inches apart. These seedlings can be thinned, or transplanted, to their mature planting distance of eight to 12 inches apart.

Harvesting Collards

Collards will begin to reach full size in about 60 days. Pick a few leaves from the base of each plant, leaving at least two full-sized leaves at the top so that the plant can have plenty of energy to keep growing. Frost-nipped fall collards are widely considered to be the best since the cold weather makes them taste sweeter, but spring-harvested collards are tasty too!

Kale and collards (Brassica oleracea, Brassica napus, or Brassica carinata) are insect-pollinated biennials. In order to save true seed, they should be isolated from any other crops of the same species that are in flower at the same time by at least one-half mile. To trigger flowering, they require a cold period (called vernalization) followed by warmer weather. Different varieties have varying vernalization requirements, but most require 8 to 10 weeks at temperatures below 50 degrees, meaning you will likely need to overwinter a crop to produce seed. Ethiopian kale (Brassica carinata) is a notable exception, as it commonly bolts in hot weather after a typical spring planting. Growers in most locations can successfully overwinter kale and collards outdoors, since these hardy plants can typically survive temperatures down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. As the plants flower in spring, they may require staking to prevent the flower stalks from falling over. Harvest the seeds by cutting whole plants once two-thirds of the seed pods have turned brown. Bring the stalks indoors to finish drying on a tarp, to catch seeds that are released from the pods as they dry. Once the stalks and pods are totally dry, thresh the rest of the seeds out by crushing the stalks underfoot on a tarp, or hitting the stalks against the inside of a clean trash can. Winnow out the chaff by pouring seed and chaff from one container into another in front of a box fan on a low setting. Store your clean seeds in a cool, dark, and dry location.