Planting the 'other' cabbage

Talk about good taste and good nutrition: Chinese cabbage! Chop up a whole head and simmer it with onion in a bit of oil, then add some soy sauce and chopped ginger. Mmmmm.

One head of Chinese cabbage -- not an unreasonable portion, once cooked, for one or two people -- has six times as much calcium as a glass of milk, not to mention large amounts of vitamins A and C and other goodies.

Planting Chinese cabbage in the spring is always a frantic undertaking. Slugs love it (even without the soy sauce and ginger), so it's a race to get the plants growing faster than the slugs can eat them. Its also a race to harvest the plants before they bolt, sending up flower stalks instead of succulent leaves. Hot weather and short nights trigger bolting.

In the coming weeks, though, we have a chance to plant Chinese cabbage again, for autumn harvest. In contrast to spring planting, growing Chinese cabbage for autumn harvest is a relaxed affair. You sow it sometime from now until about September, the exact date depending on the variety and your first frost date. Slugs have usually relaxed their onslaught because of drier conditions during the early growth stages of the plants. And with shorter days, there is little chance of plants bolting to seed. Chinese cabbage is cold hardy enough to be left standing unprotected in the garden well into autumn. A simple covering such as a sheet or a blanket of leaves keeps it fresh even longer into the cold season.

Chinese cabbage has been grown in the Far East for more than 1000 years, even though it was unknown elsewhere until about a hundred years ago. As might be expected from any plant with such a long history of cultivation, many varieties exist.

All varieties of Chinese cabbage fall into one of two groups. The first is bok choy, which has loose heads of smooth leaves each having a dark-green blade and a fat, juicy, spoon-shaped rib. The second group is known as Pe-Tsai, and these plants have leaves that are pale green, with flat ribs and blades that are wrapped into a tight, upright head.

Plant the seeds either directly in the ground or, if space is not available, in seed flats for later transplanting. Whether you'll be sowing in July or August, get seed now in readiness for a delectable fall harvest.