Other Beet Breeding 



Sweetheart has now been crossed with an otherwise unpurified but mono- 

 germ beet which has only one seed in a pod. The object i* a quality table 

 beet which can be grown without thinning the plants. 



Red Brussels Sprouts 



Catskill. an early-maturing, dwarf, green variety, is the only Brussels 

 Sprouts which produces a worthwhile crop at Durham, New Hampshire. In 

 variety trials a tall-growing European variety having attractive bright red 

 color proved too late to be satisfactory, although it might produce a good 

 crop where the season is longer. A cross was made between the dwarf 

 green Catskill and the tall red variety within the greenhouse during the 

 winter of 1954-55 in an attempt to produce an early dwarf variety with red 

 sprouts. The first generation plants, when grown in the open field in 1955, 

 were tall-growing and an intermediate red color. Some of the best of these 

 were sib-pollinated in the greenhouse during the following winter and a 

 second generation was grown in the open field in 1956. Seeds were sown 

 directly with 5 to 7 seeds being dropped in a place. As soon as the plants 

 had grown several inches tall, all green seedlings were removed. Later each 

 hill was thinned to a single individual plant which showed the most red 

 pigment. Thus over 4.000 plants were observed in the second generation, 

 not one of which had the combination of dwarf plant with a dark red 

 color fully equal to the red variety used in the cross. Some choice dwarf 

 plants with intermediate red colored sprouts have been sib-pollinated and 

 also backcrossed to the red parent to enable selection of the desired dwarf 

 red plants in following generations. That a good dwarf red variety of 

 Brussels Sprouts can be produced seems assured from the progress already 

 made. 



Red Chinese Cabbage 



Though both are called cabbage, actually Chinese Cabbage, Brassica 

 pekineusis, and common cabbage, B. oleracea var. capitata, are two distinct 

 species. Natural crosses between the two species are rare. Nevertheless, as 

 early as 1942 it was learned that crosses were possible when the Chinese 

 Cabbage was the female parent. Many varieties of Chinese Cabbage are 

 grown in oriental countries, but so far as we know there is no red Chinese 

 Cabbage. In 1947 Wong Bok Chinese Cabbage was pollinated with pollen 

 from a selected red common cabbage. No attempt to emasculate flowers 

 was made. The red color is dominant and any hybrid seedling can be dis- 

 tinguished readily by the presence of red color. Such hybrid seedlings 

 proved rather sterile. This lack of fertility may be associated with the 

 assumed chromosome number of the hybrid (2n-19), though no count was 

 actually made. This number is intermediate between the parent species: 

 Chinese Cabbage ( 2n-20 1 and common cabbage (2n-18). The hybrids are 

 strong-growing, leafy plants tinged with red color and resemble a non- 

 heading type of Chinese Cabbage. Vegetative cuttings were made from 

 short portions of the leafy, flowering stalks of the hybrid plants. This type 



