How to grow Bok Choy / Pak Choi?
- Latin Family: Brassicaceae
- Latin Genus: Brassica
- Ease of Growing: Moderate
- Growing Type: Annual
This Chinese Brassica is a beautiful plant with characteristic wide, succulent white leaf stalks (the name means white vegetable) and green leaves. It's sometimes called celery cabbage. An old crop in south China it has now spread throughout the world.
Bok Choy / Pak Choi History
Asian Greens have their origins in southwestern and central Asia. The demand for greens grew in the U.S. as more Asians immigrated. With strong Asian traditions in farming and the desire for native dishes, a demand for these greens was born. Seed companies started to bring seeds in from oversees to meet the demand. Today Asian Greens are available in most areas of the U.S. and they are growing in popularity as people understand how they are used in cooking.
Soil Preference
- PH (min/max): 6.0 - 7.5
- PH Ideal (min/max): 6.5 - 7.0
Bok Choy prefers a rich, moist, well drained soil with lots of nitrogen.
How to care for Bok Choy / Pak Choi?
Bok Choy is fast growing, vigorous and fairly low maintenance, and so fairly easy to grow. The only big drawback is its tendency to bolt at the slightest provocation.
Water
Bok Choy needs a regular water supply to grow well, so keep the soil evenly moist.
Fertilizer
Compost and aged manure are recommended to be dug into the soil. They prefer heavy soil with lots of organic matter to retain moisture and lots of available nutrients.
Seeds
Seed Viability: 3 - 5 Years
Germination Percentage: 80.0
Saving seed for most of these species is quite easy, in fact they pretty much do it automatically unless you stop them. Many can cross-pollinate with other Asian Greens and other Brassicas, so you should have only one kind flowering at a time. Save the seed from at least 6 plants to ensure some genetic variability.
Light
Part shade
Full sun or partial shade in warm climates.
Growing Bok Choy is not recommended for warm weather.
Conditions:Warm
Season:Short Season, Long Season
Sun: min. 6 hours daily
Full sun.
Conditions:Cold, Cool
Season:Short Season, Long Season
Storage
In China they often dry the leaves of Bok Choy to use for soups and other dishes. Store dried leaves in an airtight container in your pantry.
Storage Req: Drying
Storage Temp: 60-70°F
Storage Length: 180-360 days
Store well protected in a plastic bag.
Storage Req: Refrigerator
Storage Temp: 35-40°F
Storage Length: 1-14 days
Problems
Bolting
Pak choy (and most other Asian Brassicas) are very prone to bolting, especially when grown in spring. This can be caused by a variety of factors: too hot, tool cold, too dry, long day length, poor soil, exposure to cold when seedlings (this may be the most important factor), extreme weather, any interruption in growth (such as transplanting carelessly) or simply because it feels like it. This tendency to bolt varies according to cultivar, some are much more prone to it than others.
If a plant threatens to bolt prematurely, you can simply harvest what there is, or you can let it bolt and harvest the edible flower shoots, which can be used like broccoli.
Bok Choy / Pak Choi Types
- Choys
- White Stalk
- Green Stalk
Has white stems and green stemmed leaves, and is spoon shaped. The leaves and stems are both edible. Choy means vegetable.
This spoon-shaped plant has white stems and green leaves. White-stemmed Bok Choy usually is larger in size and needs to be chopped to used. The leaves and stems are both edible.
These immature Bok Choys have green stems, green leaves, and are spoon shaped. The leaves and stems are both edible. Smaller leaves and plants mean they are best used whole.
Pests
- Cabbage Looper
- Cabbageworms
- Cabbage Root Maggot
- Caterpillars
- Flea Beetle
- Birds
- Thrips
- Aphids
- Whiteflies
- Slugs and snails
- Groundhog
- Gophers
- Deer
Diseases
- Wirestem
- Clubroot
- Fusarium Wilt
- Blackleg, Aerial Stem Rot
- Damping Off
- Downy Mildew
Related Plants
Greens, Juicing
Sprouts
Seacale
Kohlrabi
Collards
Anise
Caraway
Cumin
Cauliflower
Culantro