One of the easiest and tastiest of the winter greens that can be grown now in local gardens is bok choy. This Asian green is quite nutritious, as well as tolerant of the winter chill and wet our North Coast climate has to offer.
Starts are readily available in local nurseries almost all year long. Most are locally grown and organic. At the nursery you will usually find different varieties. The small, baby variety called Mei Quing Choi grows about 8 inches tall and sports lime-green leaves and pale green succulent petioles. Petiole is the mid rib of a leaf. With this bok choy, it is best to plant small starts that are not root bound. Otherwise, plants will bolt quickly and stop producing foliage.
Joi Choi is a much larger bok choy that produces a full-sized head more than 12 inches tall. Leaves are deep green with a white succulent petiole. This type resists bolting.
Purple Choi is a small plant that rarely gets more than 5 inches tall before bolting. It has purple leaves and green petioles. This one is great for salads.
One of the best things about bok choy is that it is a cut-and-come-again green. This means if you cut it just above the roots and leave the base, more plants will sprout. You can get at least two crops from this nutritious, good-value plant.
Bok choy also feeds early spring butterflies. Try letting a few go to flower next spring. The beautiful, yellow, mustard-type flowers are a good source of early food for butterflies and many other pollinators.
Terry Kramer is the site manager for the Humboldt Botanical Garden and a trained horticulturist and journalist. She has been writing a garden column for the Times-Standard since 1982. Contact her at terrykramer90@gmail.com.
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November 18, 2021 at 06:37PM
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North Coast Gardening | Try growing tasty bok choy - Eureka Times-Standard
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