How to Grow Milk Pak Choi? The Latest Planting Techniques and Method Tutorial
Milk pak choi is a type of non-heading Chinese cabbage (ordinary pak choi, baby bok choy, green vegetables, rape) with a medium-short, plump plant type and wide, thick leaf stalks. It is a biennial or annual herbaceous plant of the genus Brassica in the cruciferous family, cultivated more extensively in Guangdong, with very high nutritional value, and has effects such as clearing heat and detoxifying, and promoting the movement of the intestines and stomach. Now let us take a look at the planting techniques for milk pak choi!
Growth Habits of Milk Pak Choi
Milk pak choi is native to southern China and prefers a cool climate. It grows best under conditions of an average temperature of 18-20°C and ample sunshine, and can tolerate short periods of -2 to -3°C. Deep green varieties are not heat-tolerant. Milk pak choi has a shallow root system and weak absorption capacity, and requires a continuous supply of fertilizer and water during the growing period; it is not tolerant of waterlogging.
Seedling Techniques for Milk Pak Choi
1. Planting time: For open-field cultivation in the Beijing area, milk pak choi can be grown from spring to autumn during the frost-free period, mainly for harvesting young plants. When spring temperatures are relatively low, it takes about 40 days to harvest; from summer to autumn, it can be harvested in 22-28 days. In cold seasons, it can be cultivated under protective cover, allowing year-round production to supply the market.
2. Sowing and seedling raising: For harvesting large plants, milk pak choi is grown by raising seedlings and transplanting, with a seedling period of 20-25 days, a planting spacing of 15×15 cm, and 30 days from transplanting to harvest. Due to the large day-night temperature difference in the Beijing area, which is quite suitable for the growth of milk pak choi, and the short growing period, direct sowing is mainly used, or after direct sowing, overcrowded seedlings are removed and transplanted elsewhere. Drilling is preferable, with a row spacing of 12-15 cm for drilling, and a plant spacing of 10-15 cm when thinning. The sowing rate is 400-500 grams per mu.
Field Management of Milk Pak Choi
1. Reasonable fertilization: Milk pak choi has a short production cycle, so it is advisable to apply more organic fertilizer as base fertilizer, and appropriately apply chemical fertilizer as top dressing during the growing period, or apply foliar fertilizer combined with sprinkler irrigation. Top dressing should be mainly quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer. The method, timing, and amount of fertilization should be determined according to seedling conditions, soil, weather, and other factors, with the principle of light fertilizer applied multiple times.
2. Cultivation and watering: For direct-sown fields of milk pak choi, herbicides should be used at sowing to eliminate weeds, and weeding during the seedling stage should be combined with thinning. Watering is generally carried out together with top dressing. Transplanted seedlings must not lack water within 3-5 days after planting; after planting in summer and early autumn, they need to be watered every morning and evening for 3-4 consecutive days.
3. Pest and disease control: Common diseases of milk pak choi include viral disease, downy mildew, and white spot disease, which can be controlled through comprehensive agricultural measures, such as avoiding continuous cropping or planting adjacent to other cruciferous vegetables, reasonable drainage and irrigation, and increasing phosphorus and potassium fertilizer to improve plant resistance. For chemical control, fungicides such as chlorothalonil can be sprayed. The main pests include cabbage aphids, stem borers, cabbage white butterflies, and striped flea beetles, which should be detected and controlled early. The control methods are the same as those for general cruciferous vegetables.
4. Timely harvesting: The harvesting of milk pak choi is mainly determined by market demand. The standard for harvesting mature plants is when the leaf rosette shifts from vigorous growth to closed growth, and the heart leaves extend to be level with the outer leaves. At this point, the single plant weighs about 275 grams, with a yield of 1000-1600 kg per mu. The catering industry generally needs small plants, with a single plant weight of 50-100 grams, a growing period of about 20-plus days, and a yield of 600-800 kg per mu.
5. Seed saving and collection: Seed production of milk pak choi should be strictly isolated from other cabbage-type vegetables, and also from other cultivated crops in the genus Brassica with a chromosome base number of X=10. The spatial isolation for original seed fields should be at least 2000 m or more, and the isolation distance for production seed fields must be no less than 1000 m. Production seed is mostly produced in northern farming areas, using the small-plant seed production method.