How to grow bok choy

Bok choy is a fast-maturing Asian brassica grown for crisp white stalks and tender dark green leaves, harvested whole as a loose head rather than grown for a single dense core. It matures in about two months, which lets a gardener fit it into a bed early in spring or work it in as a second planting once earlier crops finish, and smaller leaves can be cut for stir-fries before the plant reaches full size. It is a staple of East Asian cooking, used raw, braised, or fermented, and its speed makes it one of the more forgiving brassicas for a gardener still learning cool-season timing.

The hardest part of growing bok choy well is avoiding a premature bolt. University of Minnesota Extension warns that plants exposed to a late spring frost, or more than a week of nights below 50 degrees, are likely to send up a flower stalk once warm weather returns. A second-year gardener eager for an early start often sets out transplants in cold soil in March, and a single cold snap weeks later triggers the response. The plant channels its energy into flowering instead of leaf growth, and the stalks turn woody and bitter before the head fills out.