So EZ Bok Choy

[digitS']

This is bok choy, what is called Shanghai bok choy or baby bok choy. They are babies now but when they mature, they will still be little guys compared to some of the larger bok choy varieties.

You don't have to grow bok choy to make stir-fries but it is a good choice. You will have all the stir-fry with these babies and some green onions than you can shake your wok at !

I am thinning the near row and moving the thinnings to the center of this bed in what I call my "shady corner" garden. The plants looks a little haphazard right now because they just been shaken up. In a few minutes, the sprinkler will come on and they will get a good shower and settle into their new location, 6" to 12" from their old location .

Everything is a bit tight but that's okay. My task now will be to harvest some of these plants on a very regular basis so that the others can grow larger. Really, the larger plants there are usable size. A month ago, Major' had such a nice picture of this type of bok choy at maturity, I am just going to link to it:

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h464/majorcatfish/DSC_0026_zps96831b4a.jpg

I had some nice ones like that a couple of weeks ago but they were started in the hoop house and moved outdoors. Every one of those plants has either been harvested or they have flowered - and been harvested at that stage. Really, those are finished. I could have had mature plants before Major' had his but it would have required starting them in the heated greenhouse and then growing them to maturity under cover. (Yeah, sure sure - I hear Major' saying .)

Well, anyway -- I'm just trying to make the point that bok choy can be started very early and it grows quickly. They probably don't need to be in that shady bed yet with its afternoon shade right thru the growing season. Here, I probably could have kept them more out in the full sun with that sowing and they would have made a good harvest before the really hot summer weather. Sowing more seed just as soon as summer begins to cool in late August works great, too. Altogether. I bet I've got a 4 month harvest of stir-fry fixings just from Shanghai bok choy!

There are some other choices for Asian greens and, of course, there are some non-Asian stir-fry choices. I've got a lot of what is called Twisted-Stem Mustard this year, a little Red Mustard and some Choy Sum. Senposai will round things out by being harvestable right thru the hottest part of summer - I'm hoping. But, bok choy is the easiest and best choice amongst them for a quick stir-fry .

Steve

 

[journey11]

I will have to take a picture of my sad little bok choy to show you. I direct seeded them in one of my raised beds in early April. I probably should have started them indoors. Anyhow, it was my first time growing it. They still aren't very big, so I gave up on them and turned them over to the flea beetles. They are not even pale green, but dark green. I'm not sure what I did to them.

 

[digitS']

Uh oh!

Flea beetles are a terrible for everything in this family. Strangely, the first bed of bok choy that I set out is right beside the potatoes. The potatoes are a mess of shot holes from the flea beetles! Maybe it is a different beetle species but that bok choy had very few problems with those pests this year.

In another garden, the kale & the tomatoes have been hit hard! Usually, I don't usually feel the need to spray the tomatoes but this year, they are hurting.

One thing about bok choy, it transplants easily. Cabbage is often cited as a plant that "benefits" from being transplanted. I don't really know, my cabbage has always been transplanted :/. Bok choy is related but more closely related to turnips, same genus & species. I don't believe I've grown turnips in about 45 years . . . ha! Really, just to find out if I like them, I should grow turnips for the greens one of these first years .

Steve

 

[lesa]

You got me excited about it a couple years ago- the flea beetles made such a mess of it, we didn't eat one bite. Yours looks nice and healthy!

 

[digitS']

I used to spray them with rotenone/pyrethrum but then, rotenone seems to have gone off the market.

Pyrethrum by itself would probably work but I went a year with nothing.

The thing about flea beetles is that when they aren't chewing on the plants, they hide under debris on the soil surface. Well, I've got "debris" (aka rocks )! The pyrethrum should knock 'em out even under the rocks. But, I tried spinosad. It works.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Digit, Tyfon Holland Greens are a variety of Turnip selected really well to be greens, and really great greens. Well grown, the leaf stems I eat like Celery, that mild, sized, and crispy crunchy. I recently harvested a bunch of seed. Won't be able to do much mailing until I get a new vehicle, old new of course, but once I get one, want me to mail you some seed? Ya just keep letting them grow and snipping off nice looking leaves with the leaf stems. Once they get to flowering, it's a biennial, finish off all of them except for two for flowers to go to seed. I saved off the tallest and the shortest ones for genetic diversity. Both were great plants. At flowering they can get tall as a person.

Baker Creek's Round Red Turnip is a good one too. I didn't save any seed from those though. Turnips around here are best planted around now, but I have no room for them this year.

 

[majorcatfish]

that 1st planting of bok choi in the raised beds was delicious, the 2nd planting will be gone this weekend. it's getting too hot now to start more, which is ok starting to get bok choi out.
but will plant more this fall. they are delicious even eaten straight out of the garden.

bok choi is a misunderstood veggie many people when you give them one ..say what is it and what do i do with it...

a easy veggie to grow and they are packed full of vitamins.
my preference to cooking them is to saute them with zucchini, onions, red bell peppers and carrots in a little butter and garlic. and of course if you have a tomato throw it in at the last minute.

now steve did have my 1st harvest back in march may have been a bit spindly and sad looking but it was delicious.

 

[897tgigvib]

That's some nice "Spindle Bok" Major!

Still waiting for someone to cross that with a Turnip. Wouldn't it be nice to pull your Bok Choy and have each plant with a nice little Turnip under it?

Or howbout crossing Rutabaga with Giant Red Mustard? Pick Mustard leaves for 7 months, wait another month and pick a Rutabaga.

 

[digitS']

Okay, I don't think I could have them in March . . . If I time it right, there isn't much trouble to get the bok choy with ripe sweet peppers and a tomato . Out with the early potatoes and in with the bok choy seed - it's worked for me the last few years.

I'm not sure if I want a turnip root. I enjoy the kohlrabi that I grow but the memory of a turnip root doesn't have much appeal. I can almost remember a rutabaga - from when Mom cooked those strange things . Not the same family, huh? The brassica genetics are very convoluted. There are even some mystery and metaphysics involved . .

Marshall, I'd be pleased to try a Dutch green. When you've got a stamp and letter carrying capacity, let me know .

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Same family, Brassicaceae
Same Genus, Brassica
Different species though

That whole Brassicaceae family is quite convulated for sure. You see, paleogeneticists are able to tell that there have been many many "Polyploid events" in that family for 10's of millions of years. Occasionally different species and even genera cross creating polyploid hybrids in the brassicaceae family, entirely naturally.