Growing Mustard greens, also gai choy

Brassica sp. : Brassicaceae / the mustard or cabbage family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
S S S S S S S S S S S S
T T T T T T T T T T T T
P P P P P P P P P P P P

(Best months for growing Mustard greens in Australia - sub-tropical regions)

  • S = Plant undercover in seed trays
  • T = Plant out (transplant) seedlings
  • P = Sow seed
  • Easy to grow. Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed. Best planted at soil temperatures between 10°C and 35°C. (Show °F/in)
  • Space plants: 35 - 60 cm apart
  • Harvest in 5-8 weeks.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Dwarf (bush) beans, beets, celery, cucumber, onions, marigold, nasturtium, rhubarb, aromatic herbs (sage, dill, camomile)
  • Avoid growing close to: Climbing (pole) beans, tomato, peppers (chilli, capsicum), eggplant (aubergine), strawberry

Your comments and tips

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26 Sep 09, Melanie O'Connell (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
I share a garden bed with my neighbours from Burma who speak very little English. We have been growing mustard greens and they are now about 1m tall and covered in yellow flowers. At what point (and how?) do I start collecting seeds? Thanks very much.
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31 Aug 09, Allen Shiley (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
As a boy growing up the South of the USA we often ate mustard greens. Though they tend to be boiled with bacon or ham and stewed for at least 24 hours. Sometimes my grandmother would add a little sugar if the were bitter. We ate them much as you would boiled spinach.
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02 Jul 09, Trevor Heywood (Australia - temperate climate)
This Autumn and Winter I scattered mustard seeds around the place - a biodynamic book said to do that. When I'm weeding I see a nice mustard green I just eat it on the spot. Leave some patches to grow bigger and eat them chopped up in your dal/lentils - stem & all. Keep sowing them all the year.
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16 May 09, trish mann (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
I've been growing mustard greens as a salad vegetable for a few years and find they come up in surprising places. Very hardy to grow summer or winter- great crunchy stem with slightly hot mustard flavour. The initial seeds came from a punnet of salad greens which I let go to seed.
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I did this twenty years ago with giant red mustard. I always let a few plants on the edges go to seed, and strew the seed. I still have volunteer red mustard, and so can add some young leaves into a salad if I wish, but also benefit from the chemicals it produces when dug in to the soil to deter nematodes. Dig it in whenever you are ready by the way !

- hz

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