Vegetable · Brassicaceae
When to plant pak choi
Fast, mild and prone to bolting if sown into lengthening days.
Start seed indoors
4 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Plant out
1 week before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Sow direct
2 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make pak choi plantable anywhere.
- Start seed indoors 4 weeks before the last frost.
- Plant out 1 week before the last frost.
- Sow direct 2 weeks before the last frost.
- Expect 40–55 days to maturity, counted from sowing.
- Sow again every 14 days for a continuous supply.
- Can also be sown in late summer for an autumn crop.
Getting the timing right
The autumn sowing is the dependable one. Spring sowings bolt readily unless made very early or grown under cover.
Frost tolerance
Handles a few degrees of frost. A hard freeze destroys the succulent midribs.
Classified as half-hardy, with damage expected below -4°C (24.8°F)24.8°F (-4°C).