I've tried to grow bok choy in the spring several years running, and every time it has responded to spring temperature fluctuations by going to seed without forming enough stalk mass to be worth the trouble to harvest. I've tried direct sowing, and transplanting, and have planted in both early and late spring. Same result.

I'm trying again in this year's fall garden.

Has anyone in the central plains states had any luck growing this? (I live 25 miles or so north of Topeka, KS.)

Thanks,
David

Jim

How do I grow bok choy without having it quickly bolt to seed? In the Spring, the Asian greens are started in a unheated plastic tunnel.

Here's one of the beds in there with plants about ready for the table:

Plants thinned earlier from the beds:

Here they are planted out:

I need one more picture of the bok choy maturing in the garden as harvestable plants . . . .

About the same time as those plants were moved to the outdoors, I planted seed directly in the garden. They are well-watered and thinned.

I have bok choy in the garden now. Those rows seeded in the heat about 3 weeks ago are fairly puny and won't be allowed to grow much longer or they will bolt. The rows planted about 2 weeks ago are doing nicely and if we can get some rains, should be fine.

Mei Qing Choy is the most reliable that I've found.

Steve

Is it Mei Qing Choy in your pictures? I assume so.

Jim

The tunnel during the Spring months had something like 11 different varieties of Asian greens - mustards, bok choys, and Chinese cabbages. Probably all of these were thinned and some made a trip to the garden.

The real find this year was Toy Choy. If you like cute . . . But, more than that, this is one tender little green.

Steve

Jim

As soon as they look like they've "filled out" some, so that you might have to bite twice or thrice on 'em, go ahead and harvest.

They are fun. My seed came from Holmes, and that saved some $$ versus buying small packets elsewhere.

Steve's digits

I wonder where in China bok choy is commonly grown? It would seem that the plains of north China, with their continental climate, would have the same problems we've been having.

David

The question has been on my mind also, as yet unanswered, about which growing regions of China match with mine. Evergreen Seeds often mentions when a particular variety is good for a specific area of China, such as the South or Taiwan. Perhaps we need advice from a Chinese-American gardener (any reading this?). Or maybe more info from Evergreen, although I'm not so sure about that because they seem to make a point of mentioning varieties for the West coast where they are located.

Thanks for the tip on harvesting Toy Choy, Steve. That will be very useful.

Jim

Wikipedia has a little info on the choys.

I don't know if it is an authoritative source but Asiafood.org is sponsored by the Asia Society. "Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution . . ." They claim that, "Hong Kong farmers grow over 20 kinds of bok choi."

Shanghai bok choy is the one with the green stem like Mei Qing Choi. What I notice is that the Shanghai varieties are the ones available in our Asian grocery stores and the ones my Asian wife is interested in cooking.

Steve

newgardener_tx

I have a question about yu choy for which I will start a new thread.

Jim

Bok choy can just barely make it thru a Winter here - most plants die. Those that survive are so damaged by frost that they are severely scarred and do no more than bolt to seed.

We make good use of the flowering stalks of bok choy. I prefer its sweetness but the plants MUST attain some growth or the stalks may only be pencil size or even smaller. Those that are bigger than thumb size are wonderfully tender and tasty.

S

Steve

Here's another one! (Although I've been living in Texas for 95% of my life, so I consider myself a Texas gardener, really.) I've grown bok choy successfully in early winter and early spring. I'll have to dig up my notes to find specifics. Of course, early winter for me is probably similar to early fall or even late summer for some of you! I'm talking about nighttime temps in the 40s and daytime temps in the 60s and then in spring with temps from the 50s to 70s. When it got colder or warmer than those two ranges, the plants were either stunted or bolted. Or both.

To clarify: The plants were already off and growing during these periods. I sowed them a couple weeks earlier. The spring crop was germinated indoors in ziploc bags and wet coffee filters and the sprouted seeds were then planted out. The last of the winter crop withstood a couple of light frosts but bolted afterwards, as I recall.

For next spring's sowing, I'm going to get some of the bok choys that are mentioned as being more heat tolerant (from Evergreen Seeds, for example) because our days start to heat up very quickly by March.

Jim/San Diego

Many of these plants bolted. We pulled off the flowers and let them keep growing. Some of them seem to be developing a nice fat base, like you'd see in the store. Others are still skinny and when I pulled new flowers off and ate them, some of them tasted a little bit (not much, just a little) bitter. Also some of the skinny bolting stalks were tough. I hope the rest of the plants are not tough.

Here in GA, I have some chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, swiss chards planted in flats. But I am keeping them in shade because it is too hot (highs in mid 90s for months now). I will plant them in the garden when day highs go down to mid 80s.

cyrus

Then, sprinkle a little seed, next week. And, just keep doing this until hot weather or cold weather makes it seem like a wasted effort (and a waste of seed).

The plants are certainly weather sensitive and will bolt as a response to stress. If you sow bok choy seed a half-dozen times each year, I think it is very likely that your crop will be everything you could hope for on, at least, a couple of occasions.

Steve

These are too crowded and were thinned a little more over the next couple of days. Of course, most of those plants made it in for kitchen use. There are still some plants but they will bolt soon.

Sowing a little more seed for a fall crop will begin about 6 weeks from now.

Steve

It is listed as a common disease in brassicas.

There isn't much you can do about fusarium, I don't believe. There are resistant varieties of many vegetables. I don't know about the Asian greens - probably so.

It isn't too much of a problem in my garden but there are varieties of basil that are so susceptible that it is crazy for me to grow them.

Steve

You'd think I had subscribed to this thread since I happen onto at about the right time that someone posts . . . nope!

Bok choy is in the same family as turnips (Brassica rapa) and the University of Minnesota reports that at 41F turnip seed did not germinate but at 50F, germination only took 5 days. I say this because your soil may still not be warm enuf to get sprouting when direct sowing bok choy seed.

Not wanting to go out in the mud from today's 12 hours of rain, I'll just check the state department of ag's weather station several miles away . . . it says that the soil temperature is 45F. That means my garden soil is probably warm enough to sow bok choy seed and see the plants pop up in about a week.

Both Johnny's and Kitazawa have Mei Qing Choi "days to maturity" at 40 to 50 days. We are still several weeks away from the last frost date here but I think it is reasonable to expect some plants to harvest by the 1st of June. Of course, I've got 'em beat since I've already started bok choy in the greenhouse and set plants out in the plastic tunnel!

Okay Clairdo2 - you must have 60 days between the time the soil temperature hits the high 40's and the time frost can be expected, right? (In Celsius that about 9C.) Bok choy can take frost at either end of the season but it slows down as the fall frosts arrive.

It is a cool-season veggie so it really should be okay in your summer season. I say, "Go for it!"

Steve