Tokyo Bekana cross Bok Choy

Bok choy and Tokyo bekana are both varieties of Brassica rapa.  This means that these nutritious cabbages can and do cross pollinate very easily unless care is taken to prevent this.  

These are both highly nutritious vegetables, both are very simple and fast to grow, and seed of both is readily available and reasonably simple to save.  Both of these should be considered in any home vegetable garden. 

Last year I grew them both, along with various other winter greens and wrote a comparison of them.  I isolated them to collect some pure seed to grow the following year.  As well as this I made some deliberate crosses between them.  The photo below shows the two parents I used in this cross.  

Bok choy and Tokyo bekana

Below is a photo of bok choy on the left, Tokyo bekana on the right, and the cross in the middle.  It is pretty obvious that the cross is different from Tokyo bekana and bok choy. 

Not surprisingly, this F1 cross was pretty much part way between the two parents in all respects.

The plant looked similar to bok choy, but a lot larger, and a bit messier in growth habit.  The leaf edges in the cross were slightly crinked or slightly wavy.  

The petioles (white stems) of the cross are far larger, and the white veins are far more noticeable than the bok choy parent.  

The green colour of the leaf (which is not easy to see in the photo but is pretty obvious in real life) is part way between the darker green of bok choy and the vibrant lettuce green of Tokyo bekana.

The leaf texture was pretty much half way between the two, not as crunchy as Tokyo bekana and not as...I don't know the word...as bok choy.  

The taste of this cross was basically half way between bok choy and Tokyo bekana.  It tastes nice, which was expected given both parents taste nice.  

Bok choy on left, cross in middle, Tokyo bekana on right

I like both of the parent plants, and I like the cross between them.  

The cross tastes good, and it is just as easy and fast to grow as either parent.  It was not bothered by pests any more than either parent (we get slight issues from cabbage white butterflies, but nothing too serious), and it was significantly larger and more productive than the bok choy parent.  

Even with all its benefits, I am not sure if I will bother stabilising this cross.  I might keep growing it and stabilise something, but at this stage that seems unlikely.  I like both parents, they are both great, so unless something unexpected happens the cross may be the end of its line.  

Tokyo bekana bok choy cross with both parents

That isn't to say that I am not considering to re-try this cross.  I think if I ever re-do this cross I would use different parents, and would get a better result faster.  I would probably still use the Tokyo bekana, but if I were to try this cross again I would use a different variety of bok choy.

There are many varieties of bok choy, ranging from micro dwarf Hedou bok choy (which I grow and enjoy), all the way to some reasonably large varieties.  

I used a baby bok choy in the above cross, and the hybrid was significantly larger than that parent.  If I were to try this cross again I would try to track down the largest bok choy I could find and use that as the parent.  Perhaps this combination could produce a very large bok choy.  

A very large bok choy could be worth growing, and could provide some benefit to growing it alongside the parent varieties.  

There is a vegetable called De Zhou cabbage, I believe that Tokyo bekana was one of the parents that contributed to this variety.  I am tempted to get this to use as a parent in crosses, and am tempted to create my own version, and am also tempted to let this slip and just grow the plants I have.  So far I have not decided what I will do.  

Bok Choy Tokyo Bekana - cross breeding

As well as the deliberate cross above, I allowed some plants to open pollinate, set seed, and drop seed by themselves.  I mostly let them flower for the pollintors, and planned to remove them before seed set, but some got away from me and dropped some seed.  There were a few different varieties of B rapa flowering, all of which could easily cross with one another as no attempt was made to isolate them.  

I didn't have a lot of space to spare, so couldn't allow many self seeded plants to grow.  From those that were not removed I got some vigorous volunteer plants, most were true to type, and a few were clearly crossed.  

We have been eating all of them and feeding all of them to the chickens.  Some are better than others, anything substandard will be removed before flowering as I don't want substandard genetic getting into the gene pool.  

One of the random crosses that I may keep had a noticeable purple smudge, and a slightly purple tinge to the petioles and leaf veins.  It is difficult to see in the photo below, but the purple is there.  The colouration is far more noticeable in real life. 

Slight colouration in the veins and petioles

Given the shape and colouration of this plant, my guess is the seed parent was purple stemmed hon tsai tai, and the pollen parent may have been Tokyo bekana.  Both of them are Brassica rapa so are simple to cross.  Interestingly enough, I was considering trying that cross but didn't actually get around to it last year.  

The taste of this plant is nice enough, certainly better than most leafy vegetables I can buy.  While good, it is nothing to rave about.  The taste is not as sweet as hon tsai tai, and the texure is not as crisp as Tokyo bekana.  At this stage I prefer both parents to their cross.

Purple smudge is more noticeable in real life 

The plant itself is too messy looking for my liking, while it is more productive than hon tsai tai it is not productive enough, and there is not enough colour.  I am not overly fond of this plant, but it is only F1 at this point.  Future generations could segregate and have any/all/none of the characteristics I want.  I plan to bag this plant so it self pollinates, and I will attempt to collect the seed.  

The F2 seedlings should show a lot of variation, and from there I can decide if I want to continue this line or to start again.  Only highly coloured, highly vigorous plants that taste nice are to be kept.  Perhaps I won't keep any and will feed them all to the chickens, only time will tell.

Large flowers in dense heads

Messy, reasonably productive, large leaves

I like hon tsai tai.  The leaves taste almost sweet, and the purple colour is rather pretty.  I find the plants are a bit too messy looking, and for me it is not productive enough to grow as as a leaf vegetable, but the taste is very good.  When grown for the flower stalks like broccoli, the hon tsai tai can be very productive and can send up many flower stalks.  The taste of these is good, far better in my opinion than true broccoli. 

The hon tsai tai in the photos below was self seeded.  It had a lot of competition, very poor soil, and has not grown to its potential.  It gives you an idea of the colouration.  You may notice the leaf petioles have a deep colour, and the veins only have slight colour, this seems to vary from plant to plant and I am not sure if this is due to genetics or is largely environmental.  Had I picked this flower stem it would have sent up a lot more very quickly.  

I am not sure if I will allow this plant to set seed, I am leaving it for now as it is one of the few things that is flowering at the moment.  I like to have a few things always flowering to feed to local pollinators.  Pollinators seem to love brassica flowers, and hon tsai tai can grow many flowers over an extended period.

Purple stemmed hon tsai tai

Hon tsai tai colour

Another cross I have considered is hon tsai tai with bok choy.  I would like a compact neat looking bok choy with coloured stems.  I have some bok choy with green stems, others with white, but nothing with vivid stems and green leaves.  

I am not sure if the outcome is achievable, or if the project will just end in substandard unproductive plants.  I know a few other people have tried similar breeding projects, and have developed things like 'vivid choy' or 'rainbow tatsoi'.  I think vivid choy looks messy, and does not seem to be a huge improvement to hon tsai tai.  

I love the shape of bok choy.  To me it is one of the prettiest vegetables.  If I breed anything that loses that bok choy shape, I think I may be better off not using bok choy in the breeding program at all and may be better off using one of the many other versions of  Brassica rapa that are available.  

Sometimes I sell seed of some of these vegetables through my for sale page.  I should bag some flowers and offer a few of the varieties that I grow as they are nice to eat and very nutritious.  Most are pretty common, others such as senposai are far less common.