BOK CHOY/PAC CHOY
Hi there, I am a newbie so I will probably take over all the questions for a little while till I learn. I had planted some bok choy and pac choy in a greenhouse. It grew really weird, was tall and spindly and went to flower. It looked nothing like bok choy, I feed it every week with a liquid food, I mulched it, I watered it. I certainly didnt sing to it, but I did have some quiet chats over the weeks. Any ideas?
I think it would be quite difficult to grow a cool-season crop like bok choy during an Australian summer in a greenhouse. Certainly not impossible but the air conditioning requirements would be high.
I was just looking at flowering schedules for potted ornamentals growing in a greenhouse. It took 62 days at 14°C during the springtime for the plants to bloom. However, only 42 days at 17°C were needed before blooming. And, the plants bloomed in 30 days 20°C and 26 days at 23°C.
Now, it was desirable for these plants to bolt because the intention was to sell them in bloom. It may, however, have difficult to control their exuberance in bolting at 23°C. After all, flowering occurred more than twice as soon as at 14°C. They may have been quite spindly.
Your daytime temperatures of 35°C (95°F) must have been a somewhat brutal for bok choy. I assume you are talking about temperatures in the greenhouse.
What do you think about growing this crop in your greenhouse during the winter instead of during the summer months?
Steve
I was just looking at flowering schedules for potted ornamentals growing in a greenhouse. It took 62 days at 14°C during the springtime for the plants to bloom. However, only 42 days at 17°C were needed before blooming. And, the plants bloomed in 30 days 20°C and 26 days at 23°C.
Now, it was desirable for these plants to bolt because the intention was to sell them in bloom. It may, however, have difficult to control their exuberance in bolting at 23°C. After all, flowering occurred more than twice as soon as at 14°C. They may have been quite spindly.
Your daytime temperatures of 35°C (95°F) must have been a somewhat brutal for bok choy. I assume you are talking about temperatures in the greenhouse.
What do you think about growing this crop in your greenhouse during the winter instead of during the summer months?
Steve
StacyV, I grow quite a lot of bok choy. I have started the seed indoors and moved the plants into protected growing in mid-winter. Usually however, the bok choy is direct-seeded into an unheated plastic tunnel in late winter. Twice, a late snow storm has collapsed my tunnel and once the frost was so severe that the plants were somewhat damaged inside the 9' by 20' tunnel.
As it warms outdoors and the soil is cultivated, bok choy is one of the earliest crops to be sown. Usually, I have transplants to set out and seed to sow at the same time.
About a month later, I will sow more bok choy seed and then do that again in about 2 weeks. All of these sowings will need to be thinned and those plants can be transplanted. In the summer, I am looking for a location with afternoon shade for the transplants.
By late summer, I am back with the bok choy seed again and I will probably make another 3 sowings about 2 weeks apart. They can't run too late into the fall because frost, altho' it won't kill the plants, will slow their growth. With some snow cover, some bok choy always seems to survive winters with temperatures above about -25°C. However, those plants will be too damaged to be used in the kitchen.
So, you see, bok choy a very versatile green and can be grown much of the year. I am sure that they would do fine right thru the winter in my greenhouse. However, I would have to think that running the furnace to grow bok choy would be a smart thing to do.
We are all here to learn something and to try to be of help
.
Steve
about the 1st day of spring in the tunnel (those are flats of onions that have been started somewhere a little warmer):
[img]https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/Digit_007/Greenhouses002.jpg[/img]
bok choy and other Asian greens growing in the tunnel:
[img]https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/Digit_007/EarlySeason020.jpg[/img]
bok choy transplants, on their way out of the tunnel and headed towards the open garden:
[img]https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/Digit_007/EarlySeason007.jpg[/img]
As it warms outdoors and the soil is cultivated, bok choy is one of the earliest crops to be sown. Usually, I have transplants to set out and seed to sow at the same time.
About a month later, I will sow more bok choy seed and then do that again in about 2 weeks. All of these sowings will need to be thinned and those plants can be transplanted. In the summer, I am looking for a location with afternoon shade for the transplants.
By late summer, I am back with the bok choy seed again and I will probably make another 3 sowings about 2 weeks apart. They can't run too late into the fall because frost, altho' it won't kill the plants, will slow their growth. With some snow cover, some bok choy always seems to survive winters with temperatures above about -25°C. However, those plants will be too damaged to be used in the kitchen.
So, you see, bok choy a very versatile green and can be grown much of the year. I am sure that they would do fine right thru the winter in my greenhouse. However, I would have to think that running the furnace to grow bok choy would be a smart thing to do.
We are all here to learn something and to try to be of help
.Steve
about the 1st day of spring in the tunnel (those are flats of onions that have been started somewhere a little warmer):
[img]https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/Digit_007/Greenhouses002.jpg[/img]
bok choy and other Asian greens growing in the tunnel:
[img]https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/Digit_007/EarlySeason020.jpg[/img]
bok choy transplants, on their way out of the tunnel and headed towards the open garden:
[img]https://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/Digit_007/EarlySeason007.jpg[/img]
Wow DigitS, you are a wealth of information. I am in awe of your pictures. That might be me in 12 months (I hope) that you so very much for your time. After reading I have now decided I will try again, but not in the greenhouse, just maybe outside in some shade. I may try broccolli again too, but outside. The only real thing that has survived is a tomato plant and some silverbeet. Even killed my poor parsley. (and parsley is suppose to be a beginers plant!!) I appreciate your comments and your help and trust that one day when I learn, I will be able to return the favour to someone new like I am at the moment. I am not giving up, especially now I have found this place.
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applestar
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Good luck stacyv! 
digitS', what's your strategy for dealing with cabbage worms? Do you also get the cabbage moth loopers and worms as well? I get all three and am working on my battle plans for this year.
I wanted to try fall brassicas and mustards last season, but in the height of the summer when they are to be sowed and planted out, they were so thick that I had to give up.
digitS', what's your strategy for dealing with cabbage worms? Do you also get the cabbage moth loopers and worms as well? I get all three and am working on my battle plans for this year.
I wanted to try fall brassicas and mustards last season, but in the height of the summer when they are to be sowed and planted out, they were so thick that I had to give up.
We live in the East Midlands of England and usually buy Bok Choy from the Chinese supermarkets. However, recently small trays of plants have appeared in the supermarket. We tried to grow these in the greenhouse but seemed to have a variety of plants 1 perfect, 6 small but the marjority bolted. The temperature here in winter can go well below 0 degress C can someone please advise us what would be best - I have saved the seed.
Maurean
Maurean
Well, I'm still around (with several bok choy varieties in the garden again this year )
First of all Maurean, if the plants didn't do well for you - you may not want to use their seed.
Secondly, here is where winter sunlight may be a serious issue. The UK is not known for having lots of sunshine. (Myth?) Moreover, your latitude is about 53° North!! For the North Americans on the forum, that's about the same latitude as Edmonton, Alberta!
The available winter sunlight is just really limited, by hours of daylight under cloudy or cloudless skies. I'm not sure if you can expect much even from a cool-season green.
The outdoor April thru October conditions, I would think, should be fairly good for bok choy.
Steve
)First of all Maurean, if the plants didn't do well for you - you may not want to use their seed.
Secondly, here is where winter sunlight may be a serious issue. The UK is not known for having lots of sunshine. (Myth?) Moreover, your latitude is about 53° North!! For the North Americans on the forum, that's about the same latitude as Edmonton, Alberta!
The available winter sunlight is just really limited, by hours of daylight under cloudy or cloudless skies. I'm not sure if you can expect much even from a cool-season green.
The outdoor April thru October conditions, I would think, should be fairly good for bok choy.
Steve
Oops!applestar wrote:Good luck stacyv!
digitS', what's your strategy for dealing with cabbage worms? Do you also get the cabbage moth loopers and worms as well? I get all three and am working on my battle plans for this year.
I wanted to try fall brassicas and mustards last season, but in the height of the summer when they are to be sowed and planted out, they were so thick that I had to give up.
I seem to have missed these questions from Applestar!
Thuricide in the past, Applestar.
This year, I got Spinosad because I needed something to deal with the potato beetles on eggplant and other things. When the holes began to show up on the cabbage, I sprayed with Spinosad. The cabbage harvest has been going on for several weeks and, altho' I've found some small caterpillars, I've also found some dead ones
. So, the Spinosad seems to have worked.The bok choy in my garden has more problems with flea beetles than cabbage worms. Probably because the birds can spot the caterpillars on bok choy better than on the cabbage. BTW - flea beetles are much less of a problem for bok choy grown during the late summer and fall for me.
Anyway, I sprayed with Spinosad and that seems to have worked for the flea beetles as well
.Steve