Grow Your Own Bok Choy

If you've never tasted homegrown bok choy (or even store-bought), you're in for a treat. I'm a huge fan of both bok choy, also called pak choi or Chinese cabbage, and its close cousin, tatsoi.

Bok choy is a brassica, so it's related to kale, cabbage, mustard greens, and collards. That should tell you it's really good for you, right? And in fact, this leafy green contains tons of vitamins like A, B6 (folate), C, and K, plus calcium.

So it's tasty, it's healthy, and in my opinion, it's a really beautiful little plant. It's also super easy to grow. In fact, I recommend that anyone who's struggled to grow a full head of cabbage (that's actual cabbage) takes a step back and tries bok choy instead. You'll get similar flavor, crunch, and nutrition, for a fraction of your time and effort.

Types of Asian Greens

The term Asian greens refers to many different types of tasty and super-good-for-you leafy greens like Napa cabbage and bok choy. There are different varieties of bok choy out there, but you'll usually just see seed packets for "bok choy", with no variety given. That is, unless you buy something like pak choi, which is a type of bok choy that can be grown in warmer weather and is harvested while still small (just 4 inches across). You might also see pak choi called toy choy or baby bok choy.

Closely related to bok choy is tatsoi, which looks like a cross between bok choy and spinach. Tatsoi tastes a bit more like mustard greens than standard bok choy, so some people prefer it. Tatsoi is also more frost-resistant than bok choy, so it's a great option for those of you in colder climates.

When to Grow Bok Choy

Bok choy is a cool season plant, so it thrives when temperatures are between 45°F (7.2°C) and 75°F (23.9°C). When temps climb above 80°F (26.7°C), your plants might become stressed and bolt, or go to seed.

Most of us will do best to grow bok choy in the spring and fall. If you live in a warmer climate, your best growing window will be over your winter months. Just be ready to cover your plants with frost cloth or a floating row cover if you're expecting a hard freeze.

Bok choy is frost-tolerant. In fact, a light frost on mature plants can actually improve the flavor of the leaves. Bok choy is not, however, as frost-resistant as some of its cousins like kale and cabbage.

Is Bok Choy an Annual Plant?

Bok choy is technically a biennial, which means it prefers to complete its life cycle after 2 years in the garden. Most gardeners grow it as an annual because bok choy typically starts sending up flower stalks prematurely in warm weather.

Where to Grow Bok Choy

Bok choy can be grown in either a raised garden bed or container. I grow bok choy in my raised beds, where it appreciates the good drainage and soil rich in organic matter. You can plant it near the edge of your space since it won't get very tall.

Bok choy also grows well in containers. Pick a container at least 12 inches wide and deep (I recommend something 24 inches wide so you can grow several plants), and make sure there are good drainage holes at the bottom. Place some burlap over the bottom before filling your pot up with a mix of organic potting soil and compost. Make sure to check on the soil moisture in your container frequently since it'll dry out faster than a raised bed.

How Much Sun Does Bok Choy Need?

Ideally, the planting location you select should receive full or partial sun (6 hours of direct sun is ideal). Like other leafy greens, however, bok choy will continue to grow with less sun, though they may not produce as many leaves as they would in a brighter location. If the weather is warming up, try to give bok choy afternoon shade or use shade cloth to keep the temps lower.

How to Plant Bok Choy

Bok choy does great when started indoors and then transplanted, or you can direct sow it. It's a pretty fast-growing little green, so you really only need to give it a head start indoors if you just can't wait for your first harvest (or if your springtime temps warm up really fast).

Before you plant bok choy, add a layer of fresh compost to your planting area to ensure your little Asian greens have the rich soil they prefer.

Planting Bok Choy by Seed

You can begin direct sowing bok choy seeds 2 to 4 weeks before your anticipated last frost date in the spring (or once your temps drop below 85°F in the fall). Follow these steps to direct sow bok choy seeds in your garden:

1. Use a dibber or a chopstick to poke holes about 1/4 inch deep and spaced 6 to 8 inches apart. I highly recommend using a planting ruler to help you space out your seeds. Plant in staggered rows. Know that the tighter you pack your leafy greens in, the more frequently you'll have to harvest leaves to ensure that every plant has access to the light and air circulation it needs.
2. Place one seed inside each hole.
3. Wait until all your seeds are planted before you cover them with a thin layer of soil or compost, and give them a good watering in.
4. Surface-water every day to keep the soil nice and moist while you're waiting on the seeds to sprout. Bok choy typically germinates in 5 to 10 days.

If you'd like a steady harvest of these delicious leaves, sow more seeds 3 weeks after your first planting.

Planting Bok Choy from Seedling

Whether you started seeds indoors or bought plant starts from your local nursery, you can transplant bok choy seedlings outside as soon as the weather's right and your plants have about 4 true leaves. (Make sure to harden off seedlings started indoors.)

Here are the steps to plant bok choy seedlings:

1. Use a trowel or hori hori to loosen the top couple inches of soil.
2. Use a dibber to make holes as deep as the root balls of your seedlings. Space them every 6 to 8 inches, depending on the type you're growing. I like to use a planting line to help me keep a nice, straight row.
3. Bury each seedling up to its neck, where the root meets the stem. Gently push some soil around the base.
4. Water in well. Check on your plants over the next couple of days to make sure they're adjusting to their new home.

The Best Spacing for Bok Choy

I give each bok choy plant 1/4 of a square foot at most. This tight spacing works great as long as you commit to coming out regularly and harvesting those outer leaves (more on that in a bit).

The Best Companion Plants for Bok Choy

I like to grow my bok choy in staggered rows right alongside plants in the Allium plant family, like chives, garlic, and onions. These are wonderful companion plants for brassicas because they put off an odor that tells pests, "There's nothing good to eat here. Just onions." Also, onions and garlic take up the opposite kind of space as bok choy (underground vs. fanning out overhead).

How to Take Care of a Bok Choy Plant

There's not a whole lot you need to do for these plants to keep them healthy and productive.

Preventing Pests

To keep your bok choy plant growing and looking its best, make it a weekly task to check that none of the leaves are touching the soil surface. If they are, go ahead and prune or harvest them with a clean pair of pruners or by gently twisting each stem up and away with your hands. This is a simple way to keep pests off your plants, and it's the best kind of tending task because it's really just harvesting. As long as the leaves aren't too nibbled up, take them inside and eat them. It's a win-win. You get to toss some leaves on a stir fry, and you're keeping your plant healthy.

Bok choy, like other brassicas, is prone to attacks from cabbage loopers, flea beetles, aphids, and more. If you've grown leafy greens before and had major pest issues, what you could do is cover the garden bed with some garden mesh from the day of planting. That way, the pests will never have access to your leaves in the first place.

Watering Bok Choy

Make sure your bok choy plants receive at least 1 to 2 inches of water per week to keep them at their peak flavor and to prevent bolting from water stress. Check moisture in the soil regularly, and water when the top inch of soil feels dry. Focus your watering on the roots of the plant, not the leaves.

Fertilizing Bok Choy

Bok choy isn't a particularly heavy feeder. If you add compost to the soil at the time of planting, you shouldn't need to give your plants much more by way of nutrients for them to grow quickly. If leaves begin to look discolored instead of their nice bright green color, that can be a sign that the plants need more nutrients. Add another layer of compost or some earthworm castings for an organic nutritional boost. If you prefer to use packaged fertilizer, look for something high in nitrogen.

Protecting Bok Choy from Weather

Using covers like frost cloth and shade cloth can help you extend your bok choy growing season. In the spring, keep frost cloth on hand to protect seedlings from freezes. Once the weather warms up, use shade cloth to keep the soil surface nice and cool for your plants while they finish up their development.

In the fall, using appropriate covers means you can plant bok choy earlier and then keep them in your garden longer.

Why Is Bok Choy Flowering?

Even though bok choy is technically a biennial plant, heat and water stress will cause your plant to bolt, or go to seed. You'll know your bok choy is bolting when it starts sending up a tall center stalk and then flower buds. Each of these flowers will, of course, eventually contain seeds. Your plant is doing the amazing work of recreating itself — making hundreds of copies for the future.

But you want to harvest and eat your bok choy before it finishes the job.

When you see signs of bolting, you can use a clean pair of pruners or a hori hori knife to cut the center stalk. (You can eat this part because the entire plant is edible.) This will slow down the seed formation process. Ideally, though, you'll just go ahead and harvest the plant.

If you want to save your own bok choy seeds, leave one plant in the garden and let it flower. Bees and butterflies adore the pretty yellow flowers of bolting brassicas, which is great news for your garden.

When to Harvest Bok Choy

You can actually treat your bok choy like a cut-and-come-again plant, which means you can start harvesting as soon as your plant has a couple of leaves. You'll just take one or two of those older, outer leaves, and leave the rest of the plant to continue pushing out new growth from the middle. This type of harvesting also helps keep the plants healthy, especially if you've planted intensively.

The entire plant will be ready to harvest about 45 to 60 days after sowing seeds (or 30 to 40 days if you're growing baby bok choy). You can leave your mature plants in the garden to keep producing leaves, unless you see signs that they're starting to bolt. Then, you'd want to harvest ASAP and invite your friends over for a bok choy party.

How to Harvest Bok Choy

Come out in the morning to harvest your bok choy. That's when the leaves will be the crispest and tastiest.

To harvest individual leaves, use a clean pair of pruners to cut them at the base, or gently twist a stem as you pull it toward you.

To harvest your entire bok choy plant, use a sharp kitchen knife or a hori hori to cut the base of the plant right below soil level. Or you can leave about 3 to 4 inches of stem at the base of the plant. If the weather stays cool, your plant may regrow from the stub.

Dunk the head in ice water and drain before placing it in a plastic baggie and storing in the fridge. Enjoy your bok choy in a salad or stir fry as soon as possible (within 3 to 4 days). Unfortunately, bok choy doesn't store nearly as well as its cousin, cabbage.

Time to Grow Your Own Bok Choy

I hope this inspires you to grow your own organic bok choy plants. If you plant seeds now, you can be harvesting your own stir fry ingredients in about 6 weeks. I love tossing smaller bok choy leaves into salads. Larger leaves are great for adding to cooked dishes like fried rice or sautés. You can also eat them raw, marinate them, or make your own bok choy kimchi.

Thanks for helping me bring back the kitchen garden, one leafy green at a time

1. Bok Choy. Center for Agriculture, Food, and Environment, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
2. Chinese Cabbage. Penn State University