Bok Choy, etc.

[digitS']

That should work too, Wife'!

I haven't saved seed and I bet it takes longer than I'd expect for them to mature. I save a radish variety and the darn things take a full season to properly mature. Well . . . since yours is already flowering -- I suspect Colorado Springs has a longer growing season than here. Heavy frost dang near killed the bok choy I set outside ! It may decide to bolt to seed rather than grow . . .

Anyway, I've never been able to find a variety as good as Mei Qing Choi, which is a hybrid. That may change this year! The taller bok choy on the left is LuLan Choy. It is still a dwarf and it's real good.

Apparently, LuLan is open-pollinated or, at least, not identified as a hybrid. (Could get myself into trouble here . . :/) New Dimension Seed Company in Oregon sells it.

I don't care about the standard size bok choy. It seems really close to its relative cabbage to encourage me to grow much of it. . . . I grow cabbage, too . (See, Green Man above.)

Steve

 

[digitS']

Maybe this is a good place to mention a green that I overlooked in the list of what is growing in the tunnel. It is kind of a favorite when I want something really mild. It's so mild that it's just fine eaten raw in a salads . . . That one is Maruba Santoh.

The Santoh is the shorter light-colored green on the right side. It is slower growing than the bok choy and others, I've just lately began to harvest some of the thinnings. It is supposedly a Chinese cabbage but doesn't form a head.

Fedco and Kitazawa seed companies sell Maruba Santoh seed.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

It's just getting to be that time of the year. As the days get longer they will flower and that's that.
One solution is gai lan. It's related to pak choy but you grow it for the flower shoots rather than the leaves so let it bolt away. It's also cut and come again and you can get three or four good cutttings on the shoots but after that they get thinner with each cutting.

 

[Wildsky]

Speaking of Bok Choy... will the seeds be damaged by a freeze?

I only put the seeds in the ground two days ago - but tonight we'll be going down to the 20's and I'm very nervous!

(I have radish, onions, carrots, tomatoes out there as well )

 

[wifezilla]

Your seeds should be fine. With that cold they will just stay dormant. It's when they sprout that you have to worry.

One solution is gai lan. It's related to pak choy but you grow it for the flower shoots rather than the leaves so let it bolt away. It's also cut and come again and you can get three or four good cutttings on the shoots but after that they get thinner with each cutting.

Interesting!

 

[digitS']

It's just getting to be that time of the year. As the days get longer they will flower and that's that.
One solution is gai lan. It's related to pak choy but you grow it for the flower shoots rather than the leaves so let it bolt away. It's also cut and come again and you can get three or four good cutttings on the shoots but after that they get thinner with each cutting.

Hoodat, San Diego is at 32 north latitude. My garden is at 48 north latitude.

It already has more than 1 hour more sunlight than you have!

The growing season hasn't really begun here. There was frost again this morning. If flowering was entirely determined by daylength - my season would be over before it began.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

I can only go by my own experience locally. Your cool weather probably will delay them. Here in San Diego the choy I put in the ground in March will bolt by the beginning of May but those I plant in late September will stand till Spring without bolting.

 

[jab91864]

Sorry to go off topic, but I LOVE the tunnel pics!!!

I have something along that line bookmarked on ebay and have been thinking I really need it to help harden off my plants. Too many for my old coldframe system.

I may have to pull the trigger and make a purchase after seeing your tunnel of green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[digitS']

Costs are: sections of 1/2" pvc pipe, short pieces of smallest size rebar to drive in ground and hold the pipe, a frame of 2 by 4's at both ends with 2 by 2's as window & door, and lathe & nails to hold the plastic to the frames -- jab91864.

Oh yeah, and the 6mil plastic film: a 20' by 100' roll gets me thru 3 go-arounds. Construction grade won't survive 2 uses so, unfortunately, I have to throw it away every summer.

My greenhouse has the UV-resistant plastic but it just doesn't seem to make sense to try to use that on the tunnel and then rebuild and reuse the next year. But yes, it would be good to somehow dismantle/save/reuse. I gotta say, however, the UV-resistant stuff is fairly fragile, as in -- easy to poke holes in!

This simple set-up only works because it is in a very protected site. The wind just isn't too much of a factor because there's a board fence and 3 buildings, very close.

Steve

 

[wifezilla]

Some of my recent harvest...