How to grow tatsois

This Brassica rapa green forms a flat, spoon-shaped rosette of dark leaves, spreading low and wide rather than upright like its mustard relatives. University of Minnesota Extension's vegetable IPM program describes it growing more or less like a small head of lettuce, with a mild flavor good raw in salads or wilted into stir-fries. Gardeners often grow it among quick Asian brassica greens for the cool shoulders of the season, since South Dakota State University Extension counts it among the earliest greens ready for the table, at four to six weeks from seed.

The hardest part of growing this species well is the narrow window before it bolts. South Dakota State University Extension lists it among the early-season greens that turn sweeter and more tender with cooler nights, and warns that heat pushes cool-season greens to bolt and turn bitter. A second-year gardener used to lettuce's forgiving harvest window often waits an extra week for the rosette to fill out, only to find a flower stalk already rising through the center. Once that happens the leaves turn sharp, and the harvest has to run on the crop's schedule rather than the gardener's own.