How to grow chinese cabbages

Chinese cabbage is a cool-season crop that forms a tall, dense, barrel-shaped head of thin, tender leaves, prized for a crisp, mild texture that holds up in stir-fries, soups, and kimchi. It heads up quickly for a brassica, reaching a usable size in around two months, which makes it a natural fit for a fall slot once an earlier spring crop comes out of the bed. In the garden it looks like a looser, paler cousin of round cabbage, with upright leaves wrapping into a head rather than a tight ball.

The hardest part of growing Chinese cabbage well is avoiding a cold snap early in its life. University of Minnesota Extension notes that plants exposed to late spring frosts, or more than a week of nights below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, will bolt once warm weather returns, sending up a flower stalk instead of forming a head. A second-year gardener who starts transplants too early to beat the fall heat, or sets out a spring planting ahead of a lingering cold stretch, loses the crop to bolting weeks before harvest: once the plant has committed to flowering, no amount of care brings the head back.