Baby Leaf Mix 'Pak Choi Colour Crunch Mix'

The Pak Choi Colour Crunch Mix contains:

• F1 Baraku - Green stemmed.
• Canton White - White stemmed
• Rubi F1 - Red leaf.
• F1 Gold Yellow - Bright leaved.
• Tatsoi - Spoon leaf.

The Pak Choi Colour Crunch Mix is a new blend that contains a colourful array of pak choi varieties, an explosion of tastes and colour that is perfect for micro leaf or baby leaf production.
They can be eaten in salad or cooked in stir-fry dishes. Juicy, crisp and fast-maturing, they can be grown all year and are a welcome green leaf in any winter kitchen garden.

One of a series of blends which provide a wide variety of colourful and tasty salads. this leaf mix have been selected from varieties with comparable growth rates and compatible textures and flavours to provide interesting and tasty baby leaf salads which are ideal for home growing and ideal for stir fry or salads.
They can be grown all year round, for a continuous supply of tasty and nutritious baby leaves. They can be grown in the home, on windowsills or raised in pots in glasshouses or polytunnels in cooler areas for winter early spring crops.

Sowing:
In autumn and winter seed can be sown into pots or seed trays which can be grown on the kitchen windowsill or in a heated conservatory/greenhouse. Sow 20 to 30 seeds into a 10 to 12cm pot using a free draining compost and cover seed lightly after sowing.
For spring and summer crops, sow direct into prepared seed beds in the kitchen garden or greenhouse border, and this is the best growing technique for spring and summer crops.
When sowing outdoors sprinkle seeds 12mm (½in) apart in a 2 to 4in wide row covering lightly or broadcast sow. Tip a small amount of seed into your hand, take a pinch and spread thinly along the trench. Cover with soil, label and water. If birds are a problem in your garden, spread netting to prevent them eating the seed. Sow every two weeks for a continual supply of tender young leaf.

Cultivation:
The best tasting leaves come from plants which are grown quickly; this means a temperature of 15 to 19°C (60 to 70°F). Under optimum growing conditions a crop of salad leaves can be ready for picking 3 to 4 weeks from sowing. Slower growing crops can become more fibrous and hotter flavoured.

Once cut the plants should have sufficient energy for regrowth to provide a second or even third crop of leaves, giving a regular supply with "little and often" sowings.

Harvest:
This cut and come again crop can be harvested at any stage from 4 to 13cm (1½ to 5in) high. Depending on growing conditions, this could be within three weeks of sowing. Two or three further cuts should be possible. A headed crop (often ready after six weeks) can be lifted entirely or cut 2.5cm above ground level and left to re-sprout.

Storage:
Less likely to go limp than lettuce, though not as firm as a good hearting cabbage, pak choi is best kept cool and eaten within a week.

Pests and diseases:
Sadly susceptible to the entire barrage of brassica ailments: flea beetle, aphids, cabbage whitefly, caterpillars, root fly, slugs, snails and birds. Thankfully, though, this brassica doesn't hang about, so don't be put off growing.

Nomenclature:
Pak Choi is a brassica, a member of the cabbage family. This group was originally classified as its own species under the name Brassica rapa var. chinensis by Linnaeus.
In Chinese, Pak choi means literally "white vegetable". In China there are three terms that are are commonly used for this vegetable: the vast majority of Chinese (about 500 million) speak Mandarin, and for them the term is yóu cài (literally "oil vegetable"), since most of the cooking oil in China is extracted from the seed of this plant;
Shanghainese speakers (about 90 million in eastern China) use the term qīng cài (literally "blue-green vegetable"); although the term is pronounced "baak choi" in Cantonese, the same characters are pronounced "bái cài" by Mandarin speakers and used as the name for Napa cabbage which they call "Chinese cabbage" when speaking English.

In the UK, Australia, South Africa, and other Commonwealth Nations, the term pak choi is used, also spelled pak choy. Less commonly, the descriptive English names Chinese chard, Chinese mustard, celery mustard, and spoon cabbage are also employed.
Other than the ambiguous term "Chinese cabbage," the most widely used name in North America for the chinensis variety is bok choy, also spelled bok choi.

Chinensis varieties do not form heads; instead, they have smooth, dark green leaf blades forming a cluster reminiscent of mustard or celery. Its structure looks like a squat celery, with either white or very pale green short, chunky stalks and glossy, deep green leaves.
Chinensis varieties are popular in southern China and Southeast Asia. Being winter-hardy, they are increasingly grown in Northern Europe
The texture of both leaves and stalks is crisp, and the flavour is somewhere between mild cabbage and spinach. If very young it can be eaten raw in salads, but is best when briefly cooked.