Kitchen Garden Forum

Chinese Cabbage Brassica rapa var pekinensis
Sometimes known as Chinese leaves.

It appears there are three main types of Chinese cabbage, according to Joy Larkom;
1. a tall barrel shaped cabbage where the leaves fold in to form a dense head with wide white ribs and pale green leaves.
2. a tall semi-hearting variety cylindrical in shape with wide white ribs and pale green leaves.
3. a loose leaf variety

Both the first two have wide white ribs and pale green leaves. The first variety is the one most commonly found in supermarkets. I've found that, when buying chinese cabbage seeds, often the picture or description is of the more commonly known variety 1, the dense form even though the variety is a loose heading or semi-hearting form.

Has anyone else had the same experience? Has anyone grown a barrel type if so what was the variety name and where did the seeds come from.

I'll start a list of vars grown and what they were actually like.

Varieties:
Michili variety 2 - has an elongated semi-heading shape that resembles romaine lettuce with light green leaves with broad white ribs.

I've tried on a couple of occasions to grow Chinese cabbage (outside) and failed miserably, either because the slugs have eaten them to death or they've never developed a heart. I wonder if there any special growing techniques I should have adopted or whether it's not really an outside crop in this climate? (Should I have posted this in a different section?)

They prefer cool season and are troubled by slugs and cabbage white caterpillars so i grow them in an unheated tunnel in winter planted out in November -Dec here in France (In the UK i'd plant out earlier say Sept-Oct) and they crop (thinnings) from January to full plants Feb but that would be to March uk. I sow again in Jan-Feb in cells and set out late Feb early March outdoors.

What i was getting at in my post which is not that clear is that i have not managed to buy seeds for the actual heading barrel type even though the seed packets say that is what i am buying. So you may have not got what you expected and got a lax soft leafy thing rather than the tight head you get in the super market.

I find all the oriental greens tricky to grow to maturity with any success, just too many bugs like 'em! I tend to grow them a cut and come again subjects so I can snatch a taste before slugs, flea beetles, caterpillars and who knows what else chomps through them. The only one that seems fairly easy is mizuna. I love pak choy but the bugs beat me to it every time!

Hello,

Some years ago,Chinese friends asked me to sow and grow some varieties of "leaves" for them, as they did not have room themselves.

The main point made was that the seeds could not be sown during the summer, as they disliked too high temperatures.

I eventually grew guite a lot for them, but they were ready very late in the season.

Me; I personally did not fancy the taste,and they only asked that one season for my help!

Hope this info helps you!