Mizuna Mustard Greens
Mizuna Mustard Greens
Bright green jagged leaves add texture to your salads and taste great too! These are our favourite greens for salad in both winter and summer. Cut above the growing centre for continuous harvesting. Direct seed in a row or block, around 1 seed/cm; lightly cover with soil. Seed mid-March to early Sept, and all year round in a greenhouse. Also great for container growing. Enjoy baby greens in 3 weeks!
Certified organic in British Columbia. IOPA # 1606, 1105, 1920.
How to Save Mustard Greens Seed (Brassica spp.)
Fast Facts
Latin: Brassica juncea or Brassica rapa
Cross Pollination: WIll cross with other mustards of the same species
Isolation Distance: 800 feet
Minimum Population Size (variety maintenance): 20-50 plants
Minimum Population Size (genetic preservation): 80 plants
Seeding and Care
Seed plants 10-12” apart, or plant densely and thin to the desired spacing. Care for plants as usual and rogue out small, deformed, sickly or fast-bolting plants. Mustard will put up small white flowers on stalks that can reach over 6’ tall. Seeds form in small pods starting from the base of the flowering stalk.
Seed Harvest
When the majority of pods have formed and filled out, but before they dry and go brown, cut the plants and lay on a tarp to dry. It is important to harvest the plants while there is still a tinge of green to the plants, as they are prone to shattering, meaning the pods will burst open as they dry and the seeds will fall to the ground. Birds eating your mustard seeds is a surefire sign that it’s time to get in there and harvest.
Seed Cleaning
Thresh the seeds by laying the entire dry seed stalks on a tarp and stomping and shuffling on the plants to crack open the pods and detach the seeds. It’s important that seeds are very dry at this stage to prevent them being crushed by the threshing process. Shake the threshed material through a screen, allowing the seeds to pass through and the larger debris to remain on the top. Then, winnow using wind or a fan, pouring seeds from one container to another while allowing the lighter chaff to blow away.