My Favorite Varieties: Brassicas

A subscriber asked for a list of my favorite varieties to grow, and I wanted to start with the Brassicas, probably the most diverse and most-grown vegetable in our food garden.

The term brassica is most often used synonymously with a specific species, B. oleracea, which is broccoli, cauliflower, kohrlabi, brussels sprouts, kale, and cabbage. However, there is another Brassica species, B. rapa, which most of us also love to grow which includes

AND, we cannot leave out some other delicious “brassicas”, the radish. This is a cousin of the other two groups with a genus and species name of Raphanus sativus.

Brassica oleracea	Brassica rapa	Brassica sativus
Cabbage	Chinese cabbage	Round radish (globe)
Brussels sprouts	Bok choy	Daikon
Broccoli	Mustard greens	Watermelon radish
Kale	Mizuna	Rat tail radish
Cauliflowers	Rapini (broccoli raab)
Collard Greens	Turnips
	Tatsoi

Many of the brassicas we grow are hybrids. I find them to be consistent and uniform and also perform really well in a variety of conditions (heat and cold).

That being said, there are some open-pollinated brassicas we grow too, and those are marked with an asterisk (*).

Cabbage

Green: Tiara, Primax*, and Capture

Savoy: Famosa and Chieftain Savoy*

Red: Integro, Amarant*

Brussels sprouts*

We are branching out into open-pollinated territory trying 3 new OP varieties this season from Adaptive Seeds, our go to brassica open pollinated seed sources, so can’t call these favorites but we are growing them in 2025:

Darkmar 21, Early Half Tall, and Red Bull

Broccoli

Hybrid: Blue Wind, Belstar, Covina, and trailing Green Magic right now

Open Pollinated: DiCiccio*, Waltham, Spigariello

Notes: Blue Wind is for early and late season plantings. Belstar and Covina grow any time of our growing season. DiCicco and Blue Wind beading is much looser than Belstar and Covina.

Kale

Scarlet, Redbor(F1), & Nero Toscano

Notes: Scarlet is my fav as ornamental and for eating, with Nero Toscano a close second.

Cauliflower/Romanesco

Veronica (Romanesco), Cheddar (yellow), Earlisnow, Bishop, and Skywalker

Kohlrabi

Kolibri, Beas, & Terek, all hybrids that produce small leaves and quick, uniform bulbs.

Chinese Cabbage

Bilko, Nozaki Early* (New in 2025)

Bok Choy

Joi Choi, Pak Choi, and Li Ren Choi (baby bok choy)

Mustard Greens/Mizuna

Dragon Tongue* and Miz America

Rapini

Sorrento Raab

Turnip

Hakurei (salad turnip)

Purple Top Globe*

Tatsoi — don’t currently grow any

Round Radish

Sora* (fav for many years), Bacchus, Viola, Easter Egg II, French Breakfast*

Daikon

KN-Bravo and Sweet Baby

Watermelon Radish

Red meat*

Storage (winter) Radish

Blauer White* (new this year), Red King, Black Spanish* (intense earthy tones, but a culinary experience, to be sure)