What Should I Know About My Variety Of Bok Choi?

Do you grow a variety called ‘Joi Choi’?

Do you grow a variety called ‘Mei Qing Choi’?

Do you grow a variety called ‘White Stemmed Pac Choy’?

Do you grow a variety called ‘Purple Pakchoi’?

Do you grow a variety called ‘Hon Tsai Tai’?

This 12–15 inches hybrid combines the benefits of being fast-growing and slow-bolting. It can be harvested leaf by leaf, or all at once. White-ribbed, dark-green leaves are ready to eat in about 50 days and have a crunchy, juicy texture and a slightly mustardy flavor. This variety is suitable to be grown in containers. It can be planted during mid-spring or late summer and harvested during late summer or fall. It has poor resistance to pests and diseases and it is a fairly cold-hardy variety.

Just 8–10 inches tall, this baby bok choy matures into a compact vase shape in about 40 days. Its leaves are rich green, with lighter green ribs, and have a tender, sweet, and crunchy flavor. The heads can be gently braised whole or chopped for stir-fries. This variety is suitable to be grown in containers. It can be planted during mid-spring or late summer and harvested during late summer or fall. It has poor resistance to pests and diseases and it is a fairly cold-hardy variety.

This 12-inches tall variety has thick white stems a bit like celery and large, rounded, glossy, dark-green leaves with a mild, sweet flavor. It grows fast, reaching maturity 50 days after sowing, and is slow to bolt. This variety is unsuitable to be grown in containers. It can be planted during early spring to midsummer and harvested during mid-spring to mid-fall. It has poor resistance to pests and diseases and it is a cold-hardy variety.

Reddish-purple leaves and purple-ribbed stems make this an attractive garden plant and productive salad vegetable: it produces a profusion of flavorful flowering stems. Harvest at 30 days for baby leaves, or at 45 to 70 days to eat all parts of the plant. This variety is unsuitable to be grown in containers. It can be planted during early spring to midsummer and harvested during mid-spring to mid-fall. It has poor resistance to pests and diseases and it is a fairly cold-hardy variety.

A Cantonese variety, ‘Hon Tsai Tai’ produces purple stems with green leaves and yellow flowers. It is good in salads if cut young or can be left to mature for stir-frying: the flowering shoots are most tasty just before the flowers open. This variety is unsuitable to be grown in containers. It can be planted during mid-to-late summer and harvested during early to late fall. It has poor resistance to pests and diseases and it is not a cold-hardy variety.

‘Black Summer’ is a flavorful variety that produces oval, dark green leaves on broad, flat, light green stems, which form a perfect broad vase shape. At 10–12 inches tall, this very attractive variety is slightly smaller than the average. It is very slow to bolt. This variety is unsuitable to be grown in containers. It can be planted during mid-spring to late summer and harvested during early summer to mid-fall. It has poor resistance to pests and diseases and it is a fairly cold-hardy variety.