The short version: Asian greens are some of the fastest, most forgiving leafy crops you can grow from seed, and most are ready to pick in weeks. The leafy brassica types, such as bok choy, pak choi, gai lan and mustard greens, are cool-season crops that bolt in heat, so in most of Australia you sow them through the cooler months. For summer and the tropics, lean on heat-lovers like en choy and kang kong instead. Keep the brassica pests off with netting and a daily look, and you can have greens for the wok through much of the year.
There is a particular satisfaction in a tray of Asian green seedlings. You sow on the weekend, and by the time you have half forgotten about them, the surface of the punnet is a soft green haze. Few vegetables reward a beginner so quickly. A packet of seed costs about what a single bunch costs at the shop, so this is a generous next step from lettuce and silverbeet, and a cheap one.
What counts as an Asian green
Asian greens are a loose group of leafy vegetables from East and South-East Asia, most grown for fast, tender pickings rather than a long season in the ground. The group splits into two camps that matter for when you sow.
The first camp is the leafy brassicas, cousins of cabbage and broccoli, and home to most of the famous names:
- Bok choy and pak choi, with crisp stems and spoon-shaped leaves.
- Gai lan, or Chinese broccoli, grown for thick stems and flowering shoots.
- Choy sum, like gai lan but milder and quicker.
- Tatsoi, a low rosette of dark glossy leaves, and mizuna, with feathery, peppery foliage.
- Mustard greens, or gai choy, with a hot, mustardy kick.
- Wong bok, the tall, tightly packed Chinese cabbage, sometimes sold as wombok.
The second camp is the warm-season greens, from different plant families, which behave the opposite way. En choy, a leafy amaranth, and kang kong, or water spinach, love the heat that makes the brassicas give up. They are the answer to the summer gap, covered below.
Why most of them are so easy from seed
Most Asian greens go from seed to plate in a matter of weeks, which is why they suit a first-time grower or a small patch. They germinate quickly and do not ask for much room. Better still, many of them, mustard, mizuna, tatsoi and the looser pak choi types among them, are cut-and-come-again crops: take the outer leaves, leave the growing centre, and the plant carries on. One sowing can keep a kitchen in greens for weeks, a far better deal than a single cabbage that gives you one big moment and then a hole in the bed.
They are shallow-rooted and fast, so the trade-off is steady moisture. Let a tray dry out on a hot afternoon and the seedlings sulk, and a sulking seedling is not catching up to anything. A little mulch and a regular drink keep them moving. The first time you thin a crowded row and turn the thinnings into dinner, the whole thing starts to feel less like gardening and more like shopping in the backyard.
The thing that trips everyone up: heat and bolting
The most common mistake with Asian greens is sowing the brassica types in the wrong season, because heat makes them bolt. Bolting is when a plant decides the good times are over, stops making leaves, and throws up a flower stalk instead. The leaves turn bitter and coarse, and there is no talking the plant out of it.
The leafy brassicas are cool-season crops, and a spell of hot weather, or even a sharp swing in temperature, can tip a young plant into bolting before you have had a decent pick. This is not a flaw in your gardening. It is simply what these plants are wired to do.
The fix is timing. In most of the country you sow the brassica greens through the cooler months and treat high summer as their off-season. Steady, deep watering helps a young plant ride out a warm patch, and a little afternoon shade helps in hotter districts. Sow a small batch every few weeks rather than one big lot, so a hot snap only costs you a row, not the crop.
When to sow, zone by zone
The short answer is to sow the leafy brassica greens in the cooler part of your local year, then adjust for frost, humidity and summer heat. Australia is too big for one rule, so here is the shape of it by climate zone.
- Temperate (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra): late summer through autumn, and again in early spring; high summer is too hot.
- Cool and alpine (Ballarat, Orange, Stanthorpe): spring through to autumn, with hard frosts shutting the cold end down.
- Subtropical (Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine Coasts): autumn to early spring, and a trickle almost year round in milder pockets.
- Tropical (Darwin, Cairns, Townsville): the dry season suits the brassicas; switch to the heat-lovers through the wet build-up.
- Arid and semi-arid (Alice Springs, Mildura, Broken Hill): autumn and winter, with shade, steady water, and a wetting agent where the soil turns water-repellent.
- Mediterranean (Perth and southern WA, Adelaide): the mild, wet winters are made for these greens. Sow from autumn into early spring, and ease off as the dry summer sets in.
If your zone is not on that list by name, find the nearest one and trust the season over the calendar; a cold tableland morning and a humid coastal afternoon are very different growing days. Across most of Australia, the leafy brassica greens are a cool-season pleasure. Do not fight the climate too hard here. The climate usually wins.
Greens for the warm months and the tropics
When summer shuts the brassicas down, the heat-loving Asian greens take over, thriving in the warmth and humidity that sends bok choy to seed.
En choy, the leafy red-and-green amaranth, is a genuine hot-weather green that grows fast through summer and is picked young for steaming or stir-frying. It is a well-behaved plant for a summer bed, and a useful way to keep greens on the table when little else leafy will cope.
Kang kong, or water spinach, is the other summer workhorse, and it comes with one caveat. It is grown as a vegetable in Australia and we sell the seed, but it is vigorous, loves warm, wet ground, and can spread along damp edges and waterways if it gets loose. It is treated as an environmental weed in some warm, wet districts, particularly in parts of Queensland and the tropical north, so check your state or local biosecurity advice before you plant it.
Either way, keep it in a contained bed or a large pot, well away from creeks, dams, drains and wetlands. Grown in a pot by the back step it can be productive and far easier to keep contained. Let it reach a waterway, though, and it becomes someone else's problem downstream, so this is one to keep on a short leash.
Keeping the pests off
The pests that bother Asian greens are mostly the brassica pests, and you can manage them all without anything harsh. Those pretty white butterflies drifting over the bed on a still afternoon are not admiring your work, they are house-hunting, and the leafy brassicas attract the same uninvited guests as their cabbage cousins:
- Cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae), whose green caterpillars chew ragged holes and leave dark droppings. A fine, wildlife-safe insect net, white, pulled taut, and with a mesh too small to poke a finger through, stops the butterfly landing to lay. Failing that, a daily squash of any caterpillars works well on a small patch.
- Aphids, mainly cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae) and green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), which cluster on new growth and in the leaf folds. A firm spray of water knocks them off, and a healthy garden brings in ladybirds and hoverflies to help.
- Slugs and snails, such as the common garden snail (Cornu aspersum), which adore soft seedlings on a damp night. Collect them after dark, and ring precious seedlings with something coarse.
- Flea beetle (Phyllotreta species), which peppers leaves with tiny shot-holes. Netting and steady growth see young plants through.
Look at the undersides of the leaves, since that is where the eggs and early aphids hide. A glance while you water is usually all the patrol a home patch needs. If you do reach for a spray, check it is cleared for edible vegetables on the APVMA registered product search, follow the label, and never use a product the label does not clear for the crop. Some states also regulate garden netting to protect wildlife, so check your state wildlife authority for the current rules.
From the bed to the wok
The real joy of these greens is how short the trip is from bed to bowl. Most cook in a minute or two. A handful of pak choi snipped while the pan heats, a few mustard leaves torn through a noodle bowl, a bundle of gai lan steamed and dressed with a little oyster sauce, and dinner has a fresh green heart no supermarket bunch can match.
Pick in the cool of the morning when you can, while the leaves are full of water and crisp, and lift whole young plants rather than waiting for them to get tough. With these greens, sooner is almost always better than later. This is general gardening advice rather than health advice, so wash home-grown leaves under running water before they go in the pan.
To start a patch of your own, browse our Asian vegetable seeds for the whole spread, from familiar bok choy to the mustards and the summer greens. A couple of packets and a spare corner of bed can be enough to get going, as long as you match the crop to the season and keep the moisture steady.
Grow a few of these and you will rarely buy a limp supermarket bunch again. The reward is fresh greens on the table for very little fuss, picked minutes before they hit the pan. If you already grow leafy greens, our guide to growing spinach at home sits well beside this one, since the picking habit is much the same.
Frequently asked questions
What are the easiest Asian greens to grow from seed?
Pak choi, bok choy, mizuna, tatsoi and mustard greens are among the easiest, since they germinate quickly and grow fast. The mizuna, tatsoi and mustard types are especially forgiving, because you can pick the outer leaves and let the plant keep producing.
Why do my bok choy and pak choi keep flowering instead of forming heads?
That is bolting, almost always caused by heat or a sharp swing in temperature. These are cool-season crops, so sow them in the cooler months, water steadily, and give a little afternoon shade in hot districts to slow it down.
Can I grow Asian greens in summer?
The leafy brassica types usually struggle in summer heat and bolt. For the warm months, grow heat-lovers such as en choy (leafy amaranth) and kang kong (water spinach) instead.
How do I stop caterpillars eating my Asian greens?
A fine, wildlife-safe insect net, white, pulled taut, and with a mesh too small to poke a finger through, is the most reliable defence against cabbage white butterfly. On a small patch, checking the leaf undersides and removing caterpillars by hand works well too, with no spray needed.
Is it legal to grow kang kong (water spinach) in Australia?
Kang kong is sold as a vegetable seed in Australia, but it is also treated as an environmental weed in some warm, wet districts, so check your state or local biosecurity advice before planting. It is vigorous, so keep it in a contained bed or pot away from creeks, dams and wetlands, and take particular care in the tropical north.
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