urban vegetable patch

This is just half of the harvest!

I have harvested my first batch of Bok Choy and the bed is being prepared for the second batch with a good mix of mushroom compost. Nothing beats harvesting super fresh vegetables and cooking it straight after with a little butter and garlic. MMmmm. I think I’ve got our week of fibre all sorted!

I have read a lot other blog posts about how easy it is to grow Bok Choy, but seriously, it has not been the case for me. Almost all of the blogs that I have read would suggest you to grow them in “rich organic soil”. But if you are like me and have a okie-ish soil bed (heavy clay for me) and would love to have some asian green action happening, fear not. These are my notes from growing the first batch of Bok Choy

• Bok Choy are fast growers; If the weather is nice and warm, seeds usually germinate with 3 days and ready to be transplanted with 2 -3 weeks
  

  Bok Choy are perfect in container too

• If you are going to transplant your Bok Choy seedlings, try soaking the punnet in seaweed solution the day before. I find that this reduces the plant stress and shock.

• Bok Choy have shallow roots so that makes them perfect container vegetables

• They are hungry little feeders. If you have mixed in a good amount of compost into the soil before sowing then its going to grow fine. If not, try feeding it with a weak organic liquid fertilizer weekly.

• Snails and slugs love Bok Choy (or green leafy vegetable for that matter). I usually spread a thin boarder of snail pallets around the seedlings.

• Sun, sun and more sun. Bok Choy don’t grow well in shaded areas. My vegetable patch is north facing and gets a minimum of 5 hours of sunshine each day. I also realise that they grow really fast if you get a week of nice sunny weather (which proves to be difficult in Melbourne).

• Keep the the fluids up, especially after a hot day.

P.S: Alert readers would have notice how I was complaining about growing Bok Choy from my previous. I take it all back.

Roots removed and all ready to be eaten

1 week before harvest