Ruby Streaks Mustard Greens

Purple, frilled, spicy mustard adds great texture and flavour to salad mixes. Plant early spring, or throughout growing season for baby leaves. Use floating row cover if planting outdoors in early spring, or at all times if flea beetles are an issue. Seed in rows and harvest with scissors 2-5cm from the ground to allow greens to grow back. 20-45 days.

Certified organic in British Columbia. IOPA # 1606, 1105, 1920.

How to Save Mustard Greens Seed (Brassica spp.) 

Fast Facts

Latin: Brassica juncea

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

Learn more about cross pollination, isolation distance and population size, and why they matter in our blog post Seed Saving 101

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.