March 27, 2012

plant profile: tatsoi

During last week's heatwave it took only three days for most of the brassica species I've planted to sprout. Three days!  Tat soi was one of those greens.  Until last year I thought tat soi, pak choi and and bok choi were the same thing.  Obviously then this is a variety of green I need to know a bit more about.

image from http://www.stonofarmmarket.com/tat-soi.html

Tatsoi is a another green in the Brassicaceae family.  It makes up the Narinosa group (Maybe - apparently there is some debate - see the comment below.  This kind of debate is typical in organizing plants which is why I don't study botany!)  It forms a head of compact spoon shaped leaves at maturity.  We'll be growing it as baby greens, not as a head.  It can be grown as a microgreen too.  It likes cool weather which is why we are growing it for the wintergreens project.

image from Johnnyseeds.com

Tatsoi is apparently really easy to grow.  I followed the sowing directions from Johnny's for baby greens when I planted last week.  In a few weeks I'm hoping for some spoon shaped leaves to photograph and eat!

2 comments:

  1. Tatsoi is also known as rosette bok choy, and there appears to be some difference in opinion as to whether it should be included in the Narinosa or Chinensis Group of Brassica rapa (Elizabeth Schneider, " Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini". It's wonderful for its cold hardiness, and is equally delicious cooked when its mature!

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    1. Thanks for some clarification, and the source. Finding a good source about some of these lesser known greens is harder than I thought. Now I have a good place to look!

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