Growing Chinese Broccoli from Seed to Harvest

Growing chinese broccoli is easy. This vegetable is easy to grow with a fertile growing medium. Areas that are too hot, chinese broccoli grows better if it is given shade. In winter, it is best to plant it in a greenhouse.

Chinese broccoli (Brassica rapa) is an Asian vegetable that has been cultivated for thousands of years. It’s high in vitamin C, fiber, folate, calcium, iron, and other nutrients. It’s easy to grow at home, and it tastes great when cooked.

This vegetable is broadleaf and trunked. The stems are tender and taste sweet. The leaves are similar to broccoli plants but smaller. Kailan has thick leaves, flat, shiny, and has a slightly bluish green color.

Choose the Right Variety.

There are several varieties of Chinese broccoli available, each with its own unique characteristics. If you’re growing it for the first time, choose a variety that grows well in your climate zone. You can find these varieties online.

There are two main varieties of Chinese broccoli: green and purple. Green is more tender than purple, so choose the variety that suits your needs. Purple is more bitter, so it’s better suited for stir-fries.

Chinese broccoli can be grown in tropical areas. The temperature suitable for its growth is between 15-25 oC. As for the altitude of the location, between 300 – 1900 meters above sea level.

Chinese broccoli can live in rainy conditions, so it can be grown all year round. In the dry season, it is necessary to pay attention to regular watering, so that the fulfillment of the water can be fulfilled.

Chinese broccoli likes a cool area, with cooler temperatures the growth will be more optimal. Chinese broccoli also requires loose, fertile soil with a pH of 5.5-6.5.

Growing Chinese broccoli from seeds

The things need to do for growing chinese broccoli from seed is as below:

• Prepare the seeds.
• Prepare containers,
• pots or planting media
• Preparing planting media
• Sowing chinese broccoli seeds
• Doing Transplanting
• Caring for chinese broccoli
• Pest control

Planting Chinese broccoli takes a little longer than growing Bok coy, green and red spinach. If it only takes less than 1 month to harvest, Chinese broccoli takes at least 1.5 months.

Now we go into the details of each of the above steps.

Preparing kailan seeds

We can get Chinese broccoli seeds online. Now we can get seeds like that easily.

The tip is to use hybrid Chinese broccoli seeds. Hybrid seeds seem to grow more adaptive to extreme environments.

Polybag for growing Chinese broccoli

If possible, use a large polybag. The minimum size is 40 x 40 cm in diameter. With a large size, the growing media that can be accommodated is larger.

In addition, later if one polybag is filled with two Chinese broccoli, if the Chinese broccoli grows bigger, the place is still loose.

What needs to be considered is that the bottom of the polybag must have a hole, that’s minimal.

These holes will be useful for polybag drainage. So that if there is excessive watering, the water will come out so it does not inundate and make the planting media muddy.

Preparing planting media for Chinese broccoli

A good planting medium should contain compost. In addition to making the soil fertile, compost also makes the soil less dense.

Thus, the mixture of planting media that must be used is soil, compost and roasted husks. The comparison is 1:1:1, respectively. If it is difficult to get burnt husks, the media can be replaced with sand.

Sowing chinese broccoli seeds

Growing chinese broccoli from seeds can be done directly in polybags. Or also seeding is done separately.

I suggest just seeding in polybags. The method is:

• Spread the kailan seeds evenly on the surface of the planting medium. The spread is spaced, don’t stack it together. For example, each seed is spaced between 2-5 cm. this distance will make it easier for us in the transplanting process.
• After that, cover the seeds with a thin planting medium.
• Water the media so that it is moist, so that the Chinese broccoli seeds will germinate quickly.
• Keep the surface of the growing media moist. Don’t let it dry out. If it looks dry, immediately flush. Do not water it heavily, use a fine sprayer is better.

Doing Transplant

Transplanting must be done so that the growth of Chinese broccoli is faster and maximal. Thin time when true leaves of chinese broccoli are present.

Do Transplanting in the morning or evening. In the morning, after transplanting, do not place it in direct sunlight.

Caring for chinese broccoli

You can do these things to care of chinese broccoli.

• Water regularly
• Fertilization
• Get rid of weed
• Controlling pests.

To keep your plants healthy, water them regularly. You should water every day when possible, especially during hot summer days. Don’t let soil dry out between watering sessions.

Fertilizing we do simply. I use NPK fertilizer, NPK 15-15-15. I dissolve it in water then I pour it into the kailan. If there is an NPK 16-16-16 the quality is even better.

Get rid of weeds needs to be done when a lot of grass is growing around the main crop. If this weed is not taken, it will fight for nutrients with kailan.

Pest control is necessary. Because Chinese broccoli is a leaf vegetable that is liked by insects. Butterflies, moths, dragonflies will usually like to lay eggs on their young leaves.

If we see the egg immediately remove it. Just in pites so it doesn’t hatch.

Their eggs will hatch within 3-4 days. Then overnight they will eat up the leaves from the chinese broccoli. One day late, we could be overwhelmed.

The control I do is still manual. Because the amount of Chinese broccoli that I plant is still small.

Harvest Chinese broccoli when ready.

We can harvest Chinese broccoli when it is 1.5 – 2 months old. There are two ways to harvest it.

First, we harvest by taking the leaves. Take the bottom leaf of the Chinese broccoli and leave the tops aside. Later when there are more leaves, we will harvest again. If it has flowered, finished, must be removed.

Second, we harvest kailan by pulling it alone. If you are young, you can eat chinese broccoli up to the stems. When they are older, the stems are a little tougher and take longer to cook.

Ok, that’s how to grow Chinese broccoli. Please share if you like it. Thank you.