Purple Hybrid Pak Choi Seed

3 Ways to Harvest!

Purple tones intensify and flavor deepens as the temperature drops!

Genus: Brassica
Species: rapa var chinensis
Variety: Purple Hybrid
Item Form: Seeds
Days to Maturity: 45
Fruit Color: Green
Habit: Upright
Additional Characteristics: Cool Season,Direct Sow,Easy Care Plants,Edible,Season Extenders
Foliage Color: Dark Green,Purple,Variegated
Harvest Season: Early Fall,Early Winter,Late Fall,Mid Fall
Light Requirements: Full Sun
Moisture Requirements: Moist, well-drained
Resistance: Cold Hardy,Disease Resistant
Soil Tolerance: Normal, loamy
Uses: Beds,Containers,Cuisine,Fall Color,Foliage Interest,Ornamental,Outdoor,Winter Interest

Seeds

30 days from direct sowing for baby veggies; 45 days for a succulent young plant; 70 days for fully mature pak choi.

The only pak choi you need, no matter how you intend to cook this delicious and versatile vegetable! Purple Hybrid is often grown just for its handsome violet leaves, so stunning above lime-green stems, or for its rich, intense flavor. But it is also more versatile than others, because you can harvest it at any point from about a month after sowing, depending upon how you want to use it! And now that it is available in easy-sow seed tapes, you can design lovely parterres and patterns, sow straight rows in seconds, and never fear the seeds washing away in rough weather!

Seed tapes are the easiest and most effective way we have found to direct-sow seeds into the garden (and they also work perfectly in containers!). The seeds are embedded into biodegradable strips 15 feet long, so you can cut them to desired size, place onto the smooth soil, sprinkled with a little more soil, and water in. That’s it! Evenly spaced seedlings in no time, even if rainstorms, winds, hungry birds, and other rough conditions strike after you sow the tapes!

Purple Hybrid is an ideal candidate for seed tapes, because you can choose when to harvest this versatile Chinese Cabbage. At about 30 days, it is ready to be harvested as a gourmet baby veggie: steam the entire head for delectable, succulent eating! Or, if you prefer a bit more growth on this pak choi, let it grow another 2 weeks or so, harvesting around 45 days. Now you have a very young plant with more height and weight, the texture and flavor a bit more developed but the tenderness still great! Finally, for stir fries and stews, let it mature to full size at about 70 days. The mature plant is anywhere from 15 to 18 inches high and 9 to 12 inches wide, with weighty, flavorful stalks.

Purple Hybrid Pak Choi is best sown successively from late summer all the way to mid-fall, depending upon the first anticipated frost date in your area. Great fresh eating all season — right through Thanksgiving in some climates! In very warm areas, it will also go into winter, or can be started in late winter for early spring crops. And of course it looks as good as it tastes, with those midnight-dark leaves with green undersides and bright green stems!

If you are growing this seed in straight rows, space them about 2 feet apart. As the seedlings emerge, thin them according to the size at which you want to harvest them: baby veggies can be spaced 4 inches apart, while young vegetables need 6 to 8 inches of space, and fully mature plants need 12 to 15 inches. 150 of seed.