Kitchen Garden Forum

Does anyone have any tips for growing pak choi? My sister has requested I grow some and it's new to me (although I have eaten it). Do I treat it like lettuce?

Flea bettle love it so keep it covered with fleece from the day you sow it.

Jerry

easier to grow early and late rather than summer as it easily goes to seed when it is warmer

Hello Chantal

I completely agree with Sanders comment re the dreaded flea beetle, when growing Pak Choi outside. We even tried permanently covering them with fleece cloches, but to no avail. Won't bother with outside crops again.

However, we have had fantastic success growing Pak Choi in a growbag in the greenhouse (unheated, of course). Turned out looking as good as the cosmetic stuff in the supermarkets. And of course the taste was better! We had mixed lettuce leaves in a growbag alongside them so did treat them similarly. We will definately be growing more this year!

I tried to grow them in pots and found that they are very hungry for feed and water. They also grow lots of root.

I used derris dust on the ones in the field but they were still full of holes.

This year I intend to pick them young.

I've read about, but not used, enviromesh - supposed to keep out lots of creepy crawlies. Would that work for keeping out flea beatle?

I grew it as a catch crop in raised beds last summer and had fantastic sucess. Mine too looked as good as the supermarket versions with almost 100% seed to maturity. I planted late, well into august and it grew incredibilly fast. Not too many problems with flea beetle - I used Derris - but the cabbage whites got in to some of them and as they have such tightly formed leaves the catapillars were difficult to get at and survived the deris. It seems every living thing in the garden likes a succulent pac choi but I ended up with so many good plants I gave a lot of them to the chickens for their daily greens ration and they instantly developed a real passion for them. I'll be growing them every year now from now on, particulary as a late summer catch crop. Very useful for the table and the chickens

Thanks for the help, Sue's comments look particularly encouraging; especially as I also keep chickens.

Thanks again everyone.

Chantal

I was reading sue-the-recycler bit about derris and know that i need to use it to stop my raspberry beetle, but have never used it before any advise
Mark

Flea beetle is very seasonal. It appears twice in the summer at times that depend a lot on the prevailing weather and there are so many different ones that it is difficult to know the timing. I think the last batch is late August so you can go ahead with pak choi from then and again in spring. It can decimate any of the brassicas, radish, cress, chinese lettuce, etc.
Allan

I've grown it in an unheated tunnel and outside(later) under Enviromesh - both with excellent results. I'm going to try it under a fleece frame from planting this year, as I do with carrots.