This ancient Chinese vegetable with a beautiful white or yellow flower is guaranteed to please your taste buds. It’s packed full of nutrients and fiber, and like other members of the cabbage family, is an early-season harvest with outstanding flavor.
Chinese broccoli is a short leafy vegetable with thick stems and green leaves growing around a thick main stalk. The flat broad leaves can grow 1-3 inches across and 3-5 inches long.
It produces a flower early in its life, but this doesn’t take away from the flavor at all! When the flowers appear, it’s actually a sign it’s time to start harvesting.
These plants have a relatively short life. They germinate quickly, and within about 4-7 weeks grow to about a foot in height with fully developed leaves and flowers. Almost the entire above-ground portion of the plants are eaten, from stems to leaves and flowers!
Planting Chinese Broccoli
A cool-season vegetable, Chinese kale can be grown year-round depending on your average daily temperatures, it prefers temperatures between 50-75 degrees. It’s a wonderful fall and winter harvest for growers in zones 9 & 10, and a great early spring crop for anyone gardening with a fear of a late frost. In a far northern climate, or in cool and shaded gardens, this crop can even do well in the summer.
Check your upcoming climate conditions; if you have 5-7 weeks of cool temperatures forecast go ahead and sow your seeds! You can sow either in trays and transplant out once the plants reach about 3 inches in height, or you can direct sow into your amended garden soil. Sow seeds 1/4 in deep and space them 4-6 inches apart in rows 18-24 inches apart. Once plants emerge, thin any seedlings that are closer than 4 inches apart, or growing multiple seedlings in a single spot.
After you sow, be sure to keep the soil or trays evenly moist until germination, and continue misting your plants until they reach three inches in height.
Chinese broccoli grows well in containers and raised beds! Since gardeners are better able to control the types of soil present in these growing areas, your plants have a better chance of thriving. If you’re growing in containers, try planting 1 plant per 6” wide pot, or 3 per 1’ wide pot. The deeper the pot the healthier the root system will be.
Sun and Temperature
A cool-season plant, this plant does best in cooler temperatures – 50-75°F. This means that depending on your zone, you can grow this vegetable in fall, winter, spring, and summer! It all depends on the average daily temperatures of the zone you’re in.
During the cool season, you’ll want your plants in the sun for 6-8 hours a day, making sure that it doesn’t get so hot it begins to bolt. Before temperatures reach a steady 50 or so degrees a day, you can use a row cover to help insulate the plants from the cold and encourage faster growth. Don’t worry though, they can tolerate a frost or two.
Water and Humidity
While spring and summer may bring rainstorms, it’s best to water your garden every week especially if there isn’t rain in the forecast. In order to prevent disease, water mid to late morning on a drip line. Your Chinese broccoli needs one inch of water a week, more if it’s supposed to get hot out. Be sure to protect your plants as well, by mulching around the base of the stalk. This mulch helps to retain water and can prevent bolting from hot weather.
Soil
This early producing spring crop loves rich soil, good drainage, and a pH of 6.0-6.8. A loamy-sand to silty soil is best for this fast-producing Asian vegetable. Work rich compost or manure into the top 6 inches of soil before starting seeds or transplanting. Well-drained organic humus is what works best for these tender greens. Gai lan can survive in poor quality soil if compost is worked into it. A heavy feeder, organic compost, or thick mulch can make up for poor dirt.
Fertilizing
A fast grower, Chinese broccoli, also known as Chinese kale needs a good deal of nutrients to grow. Before sowing seeds or transplanting seedlings into your garden, make sure that your soil has had rich compost worked into the top six inches. Additionally, at the time of planting, apply an even 10-10-10 fertilizer around your vegetable patch.
After the seeds germinate and are 4 weeks old, apply a fertilizer high in nitrogen around the base of the stalks. Nitrogen aids in leaf development, which is key!
Harvesting
Chinese broccoli is a great cut-and-come-again crop. Gai Lan is best harvested when the few first flowers begin to poke out from the center of the stalk. Cut the leaves and the stems about 8 inches from the top of the plant leaving a few leaves still attached to the stalk. This helps to encourage growth! You may just have another harvest in 1-3 weeks!