Looking for a mid-season vegetable to plant in your garden? Look no further, Chinese cabbage is a great option. This cabbage matures quickly and is ideal for growing in winter’s shorter days and cooler temperatures.
Figure: Bok Choy Harvested & Prepared in a dish. Credit: Jieli Qiao, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
Growing Asian vegetable crops in Florida has become an increasing trend over the last decade, mostly due to health benefits and profitability by producers. However, the crop is new to many, who are interested in growing and consuming these vegetables. There are two sub-species of Chinese cabbage. The Pe-Tsai group are the broad leaved, compact heading varieties. The head may be six inches across and either round or cylindrical, in shape. The second group is known as Bok Choy (figure). These are non-heading Chinese cabbage varieties that have several thick, white leaf stalks, and smooth glossy, dark green leaf blades clustered together, similar to the way celery grows.
Again, cooler temperatures are key. Warm temps cause the plant to uptake more calcium, making the heads soft and bitter and may contribute to early seed development through bolting. Chinese cabbage matures in around forty to seventy-five days from planting, depending on variety. There’s no specific requirements to growing this cabbage in Florida, just follow the same soil preparation, liming, fertilization, and cultivation practices that you would use for other leafy vegetable garden crops. The main pests and diseases that occur are leaf blight, downy mildew, aphids, and cabbage caterpillars. Leaf blight and downy mildew usually occur in warmer times of the year, with higher temperatures and rain.
Chinese cabbage is very versatile. It’s great in salads, stir fry, pickled and even as a replacement for lettuce on your favorite sandwich. Enjoy!
Information for this article can be found at the UF/IFAS EDIS Publication, “Bok Choy, an Asian Leafy Green Vegetable Emerging in Florida”: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1337 & “Cabbage, Chinese – Brassica Campestris L. (Pekinensis Group)”: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mv036.
UF/IFAS Extension is an Equal Opportunity Institution.
A mixed vegetable garden. Photo Credit: eXtension.org.
It’s never too early to start thinking about your spring vegetable garden. Have you ever wondered how much it costs to grow your own vegetables? Does it cost less to grow your own vegetables or buy them from the grocery store or farmers market? A number of factors are involved with answering these questions and budgeting for your home garden.
Materials
The materials used are specific to your own vegetable garden. If you do everything by hand you may need a hoe, rake, and spade along with a number of other tools you can use from year to year. When budgeting for you garden you would need to think about the life expectancy of these tools. Let’s say a $20 rake lasts for 10 years. In that case, you would budget $2/year ($20 ÷ 10 years = $2/year) for the rake. This might also be the case with a bag of fertilizer. You may buy a 50 pound bag of fertilizer and use half the bag in year one and the other half in year two, so the cost of the fertilizer would be cut in half for your yearly budget. Other materials may be purchased for just one growing season such as pine straw for weed suppression or you may buy only enough seeds for the season.
Labor
A lot of work goes into growing your own vegetables. If you have the time and enjoy gardening then you may choose to charge yourself nothing for your work. However, from a cost analysis perspective you may want to put a value on your work. This will give you a better comparison to buying vegetables.
Budgets
Of course you could create your own budget based on all the costs that go into gardening. But why do that, when it’s already been done for you. The UF/IFAS Costs and Benefits of Vegetable Gardening publication includes a Microsoft Excel Cost Workbook to help answer some of these cost questions. This budget template is customizable, so it’s important that you consider all the costs for your vegetable garden. If you are looking for more detailed crop budgets, there are a lot of North Florida Enterprise Budgets available from UF/IFAS.
Who doesn’t enjoy a fresh, crisp bowl of salad? Lettuce happens to be a vegetable that is easily grown in Florida for fall & winter gardens. In Florida, four types of lettuce are commonly grown: crisphead, butterhead, leaf, & today’s topic, romaine.
Photo courtesy of Tyler Jones, UF/IFAS.
An interesting, little known fact about romaine lettuce is that it was cultivated extensively by the Roman Empire. By the fourteenth century, the Catholic Hierarchy had moved from Rome to Avignon, France bringing their prized lettuce along with them. During this period, the plant was known as “Avignon” lettuce. In England, romaine is called “cos” lettuce named after the Greek islands from which the lettuce was originally distributed. Of course, in the U.S., the name we give, Romaine, refers to the time when it was grown extensively in the Roman Empire.
Romaine is grown both commercially and in backyard gardens across the state. Like all lettuce, this is a cool season vegetable. September through March is a generally the extent of the growing season. Romaine can be grown from seeds or by transplants. If you are going the seeding route, just remember these seeds are very small and should be sown shallow and in a tight pattern, with 12”-18” row spacing and a light sprinkle of soil over the top. Newly planted seeds may require burlap or straw to help retain soil moisture for successful germination. Once plants reach a few inches in height, rows can be thinned to where plants are 8” apart.
Romaine needs adequate soil moisture throughout the season. Mulching around plants to retain moisture and adding a complete fertilizer such as 8-8-8 will help ensure a good yield. Lettuce is vulnerable to the usual suspects of garden pests. However, gardening in cooler months helps combat that threat.
Romaine lettuce is fun and rewarding to harvest, as well. You can pick a few leaves off a plant or harvest the entire head.
For more information, contact your local UF/IFAS County Extension office.
Supporting information for this article can be found in the UF/IFAS EDIS publication, “Romaine – Lactuca sativa L.” by James M. Stephens, Emeritus Extension Vegetable Crops Specialist, UF/IFAS: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mv125
UF/IFAS Extension is an Equal Opportunity Institution.
Are you interested in growing lettuce and other leafy greens? Are you looking for tips on extending the growing season for your leafy green crop? If so, then check out this very informative instructional video by Washington County Horticulture Agent Matthew Orwat.
Leaf lettuce growing in a floating hydroponic system. Photo Credit: University of Florida/IFAS Extension.
Christmas is just around the corner and what better gift could you give other than the gift that keeps on giving…a hydroponic bucket garden! Floating hydroponic gardens are easy to build with supplies found at just about any home and garden center. A simple garden can be constructed with a 5-Gallon bucket, polystyrene foam board insulation, and “net pots” or other suitable containers to support the plants. Leaf lettuce and herbs are suitable plants for growing in a floating garden and will grow well indoors as long as there is plenty of natural light available.
SUPPLIES
5-Gallon Bucket
Polystyrene Foam (1½ inch or thicker)
Water
Water-Soluble Fertilizer (10-10-10, 20-20-20, 24-8-16, or similar grade)
Epson Salts (magnesium sulfate)
Suitable Plants (leafy lettuce, greens, or most herbs – NOT rosemary)
“Net Pots”, Polystyrene Cups with punctures, or other suitable containers
Jigsaw, Drywall Saw, or Sharp Knife
Hole Saw
CONSTRUCTION
Cut, with a jigsaw, a 1½ inch board of polystyrene foam board insulation into 1-by-1-foot squares.
Place the bottom of the bucket on a 1-by-1 foot square of foam and trace the shape of the bucket on the foam. Cut out the circle.
Use a hole saw to cut evenly spaced holes out of the foam. (Typically 3 to 4 depending on “net pot”/plant container size.) The hole size should allow the bottom of the plant container to be level with the underside of the foam.
FERTILIZATION & PLANT CARE
Fill the bucket with approximately 2.5 gallons of water. Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of water-soluble fertilizer for each gallon of water to be used in the bucket (approximately 5 to 9 teaspoons for 4.5 gallons of water). Add ½ to 1 teaspoon of Epson Salts for each gallon of water to be used in the bucket (approximately 2.5 to 4.5 teaspoons for 4.5 gallons of water). Mix the fertilizer and Epsom Salts with the water in the bucket. Continue to fill the bucket with water to within 1½ inches of the rim of the bucket. Set “net pots” or plant containers in the hole cutouts in the foam circle. Lay the foam circle, with inserted containers, on the surface of the water/fertilizer mixture in the bucket. Place the young starter plants in the containers. Do not remove the potting mix from the plant roots. The most critical aspect is the depth of the transplant’s root ball in the solution. The bottom of the root ball should be flush with the surface of the water. As the water/fertilizer mixture is taken up by the plants and evaporated, the water level in the bucket will decline.
FURTHER INFORMATION
A bucket garden may just be the beginning of your hydroponic ventures. For additional publications on growing hydroponic vegetables please visit the University of Florida/IFAS EDIS website hydroponic production page. If you want to start your own hydroponic farm then you may also be interested in attending the “Starting a Successful Hydroponic Business” training at the Suwannee Valley Agricultural Extension Center in Live Oak in March.
