Pechay is one of those leafy vegetables that can easily grow in containers. It is a very popular vegetable in Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine. In western countries, they are also known as “bok choy” or “pak choy”. The pechay leaves are smooth and dark green in color forming a cluster similar to mustard greens.
How to Grow Pechay: A Step-by-Step Guide
Prepare your cocopot, seed starter soil and pechay seeds that are included in your seed starter kit/pack. Fill your cocopot at least more than half of the pot with our seed starter soil. Carefully place your seeds evenly to the coco pot. Seeds when exposed to sunlight will wither. Therefore it must be covered with remaining soil mixture and put water thoroughly. In just 3-4 days, you can already see the small buds growing out of the soil. Once the third or fourth leaf appears after around 2 weeks
Transfer the seedlings to a fabric bed of about 3 to 4 inches apart. Then choose the healthiest seedlings and pull out the others. If you have a bigger container, you can grow 2 or 3 plants in the pot.
While these plants can grow in partial shade, they need to get at least 4 hours of direct sunlight in order to grow faster and healthier. But be careful because the leaves of pechay are easily burnt so don't let them be on direct sunlight for a long period of time.
Watering Your Pechay
Always water as soon as it dries. Don't wait for it to be fully dry before you water them. Just maintain the moisture of the soil until it sprouts. Just continue this for 2 weeks or less depending on the growth of the seedlings until it becomes a fully grown seedling ready for transplanting. For transplanting your plant babies, here’s a quick video guide for you.
Harvesting your Pechay
Pechay does not take long to grow and can be harvested any time from six weeks and onward. Sometimes you can even harvest it after four or five weeks, depending on the weather.
There are two options for harvesting pechay.
1. Cut only the mature leaves around 1 to 2 inches from the root base. The plant will grow new leaves which can be harvested again after a few weeks.
or
2. Pull out the entire plant from the soil.
Tips: Pechay leaves are prone to pest attack, particularly the leaf miner and flea beetle. Fortunately, they are easy to handle using common organic pesticides.
Source: www.freshpicksmanila.com
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