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How to Grow Chinese Cabbage
Index
- Sowing Instructions
- How to Transplant
- Crop Maintenance
- How to Harvest
- Storage
- Pests & Diseases
Sowing Time
- Avoid sowing early
- Sow from mid May until June
- Grows well with lots of exposure to the sun
Soil Preparation
- Prefers fertile, deep, well drained soil
- Prepare soil the previous spring, dig to a depth of 30cm, removing at stones and weed roots
- Mix with well rotted compost or manure
- Try to avoid light or heavy soils
- Chinese vegetables prefer soils with a ph range of 6.5 to 7
Sowing Instructions
- Plan the growth cycle so that your plant is ready before the last frost
- Chinese cabbage doesn’t transplant well so plant directly into the garden
- Early crops can be protected by mini garden cloche
- Sow seeds 1cm inch deep, in rows 30cm apart
- Sow thinly and later thin seedlings to 20cm apart
- Don’t forget to water frequently, keeping moist at all times (to prevent bolting)
- Apply a light dressing of growmore when heads begin to appear
Harvesting
- Will grow to maturity in roughly 4 months
- Water well the week before harvest
- Harvest in dry weather, before the seed stalks appear
- Cut the heads just above the soil, when the heads feel solid
- Can harvest when young as salad greens
Storage
- Only freeze crisp and young cabbage
- Blanch for 90 seconds, and chill in iced water for 2 minutes
- Keep in freezer bags stored in the freezer
Pests and Diseases
- Problems: Club root and soft rot
- Protection: Lime the soil in the off season and rotate crops with unrelated crops
- Slugs are a major problem - barriers such as eggshells, coarse sand, ash, copper can control problem
- Caterpillars also a problem, set up netting early to keep butterflies off your crops
