Purple Tree Collards Seeds

currently unavailable Tree collards came to the U.S. during the the early years of slavery. It provided valuable nutrition and was probably the first perennial vegetable in the south. The plant was normally propagated from cuttings using stem cuttings. All the leaves were removed and then the stem or stalk was stuck into the soil. This is how it is still propagated today. 

I was extremely fortunate to get seeds and began a permanent polyhouse planting as well as an outdoor planting to develop perennial northern versions.   This is how I grow them. This has allowed me to create hardier and more robust forms.  Tree collards are considered a perennial Brassica but if it hits much below 25F the plant will unlikely survive the winter.  However with selection many of our plants have survived in our polyhouses without supplemental heat during the winter with lows reaching minus 17 F. Eventually many of these ended up in my outdoor plantings. The flavor seems to hold true but the leaf shapes are different. Once someone called and wanted to return the plants because they are not true collards. This is an issue for some by finding hybrids within the collard group and not wanting something that looks different than the more common annual collards which are very uniform in appearance.

The flavor of the leaves is very mild and just delicious to eat fresh or cooked. Gardeners in mild climates will find the plant reaching 4-6 ft. tall in one season which can be trimmed to look like a thick Scots pine Christmas tree if you prune it vigorously.  Tree collard stems can be kept in your refrigerator crisper section and stored that way through winter. Just make sure to remove the leaves. Plants can be brought indoors during winter too and can be kept in a sort of a dormancy by putting them on a cool window sill. 

This seed source can provide both cultivar level selections with hardier versions that can survive several years without having to be replanted. Every seed source is different in terms of hardy brassicas. I have tried a lot of them. Despite the variation in this group, this is the hardiest and should easily survive zone 5 outdoors. However, it really needs further testing to see the limits. I think zone 4 is not out of the question now when it hit -27F at the farm a few years ago and all the plants made it. This seed source will make a seed source for use as is and to create other zone 5 cultivars like "Michigan".