13 Asian Greens You Should Plant This Season
Asian greens are popular worldwide tor their versatile flavor and rich nutrition. With quick-gorwing qualities and a preference for the cool season, now is the perfect time to plant the leafy culinary stars for prolific yields. Join gardening expert Katherine Rowe in exploring favorite crops with wide appeal.
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Flavorful greens, fresh, cooked, or pickled, contribute to peak deliciousness, or umami, flavor, where sweet meets savory in a fulfilling way. Many favorite greens originate in Asia and are prevalent in cuisine and vegetable gardens worldwide. Packed with nutrition, the selections offer the vitamins we crave as the season turns chilly. Their versatile flavor enriches stir fries, soups, baked dishes, and fresh salads. Springy microgreen toppers enhance any dish.
The leafy vegetables grow quickly, perfect for a fast cool-season harvest. This fall, consider adding Asian green favorites to your countertop harvest, edible container arrangement, or raised bed. The swift rewards of tender leaves and easy growth leave us wanting more. In cold climates, grow them until your first hard freeze, as many are frost-tolerant but won’t withstand extreme temperatures. In mild climates, grow them in fall, winter, and early spring.
‘Baby’ Bok Choy
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common name ‘Baby’ Bok Choy |
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botanical name Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis ‘Baby’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 5-20” |
Bok choy, or pak choi, is a mild, sweet, tender cabbage with centuries of history in Asian cuisine. This fast-developing, nutrient-rich leafy green is ideal as a late-season planting for an autumn harvest or several successional rounds.
Dwarf cultivars boast quick growth and compact habits. Small selections are often more heat- and frost-tolerant, making them good options during weather fluctuations.
‘Baby Choi’ matures in 35 to 60 days and reaches 20 inches tall. Pick it when small and early for tender growth and crisp white stems. ‘Toy Choy’ is a miniature variety that grows a mere five inches tall and is ready in as little as 30 days.
Gai Choy Mustard
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common name Gai Choy Mustard |
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botanical name Brassica juncea subsp. integrifolia |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 10-12” |
The curled leaves of Gai Choy have crunchy stems and hold a true Chinese mustard flavor, robust and spicy. Mature plants form a cabbage head. New, small foliage is milder for fresh eating as baby greens. Full leaves are best in cooking, where they mellow and soften.
Gai Choy is high in vitamen C and A. It also contains beta-carotene, iron, calcium, and potassium.
Young leaves are ready in as little as 40 days from seed and mature in 60. Begin the harvest as microgreens and baby greens at two inches tall.
Tatsoi Bok Choy
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common name Tatsoi Bok Choy |
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botanical name Brassica rapa subsp. narinosa |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 4-6” |
Tatsoi features soft, spoon-shaped leaves with a smooth texture and exceptional flavor. The ancient vegetable is dark green and forms a showy, full rosette.
Tatsoi is more cold tolerant than its bok choy relative, hardy to 15°F (-9°C). Its nutritional profile also boasts higher calcium and vitamin levels.
Quick-maturing tatsoi develops fully 45 days from seeding. Pretty in frosty containers, rosettes expand with space between seedlings.
Mizuna Mustard
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common name Mizuna Mustard |
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botanical name Brassica rapa subsp. nipposinica |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 12” |
This Japanese mustard is highly ornamental in addition to its culinary merits. Dissected leaves lend a fine texture and graceful look to blooming annuals along the border edge or in pots. Individual plants may hold 200 upright stems with delicate leaves.
Usable at any growth stage, baby greens are best with a mildly spicy flavor. They’re ready to pick a few weeks after sowing. Mizuna mustard tolerates heat and frosty conditions without being quick to bolt (prematurely bloom) .
Spinach
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common name Spinach |
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botanical name Spinacia oleracea |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 4-18” |
Spinach is a staple of the cool-season vegetable garden, whether in spring or fall. Sow multiple rounds of the cold-hardy crop for continual enjoyment. Spinach joins our list of historical greens, first cultivated in Persia (Iran) 2000 years ago and used in 6th century China.
Spinach is fast-growing, tender, and matures at two to four inches tall in about 20-25 days. Place seeds close together in containers or beds for a high yield.
‘Oceanside’ has small, uniform greens with good flavor and high nutrients. The cold-hardy growers may overwinter in sub-zero temperatures and are downy mildew resistant.
‘Bloomsdale’ is a favorite and dependable heirloom from the early 1800s. It has thick, crinkled leaves and is slow to bolt in warming temperatures.
Napa Cabbage
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common name Napa Cabbage |
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botanical name Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 9-11” |
Napa cabbage has a delicately sweet, mild flavor (not as pungent as western cabbage). The foliage is soft, and light green with white stems, and heads have a creamy interior.
Fully developed, the cabbages may weigh over two pounds each. They’re ready in 50-55 days and are best when mature. Napa cabbage is delicious in kimchi, fresh wraps, salads, and stir-fried, braised, and roasted.
Kailaan Chinese Broccoli
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common name Kailaan Chinese Broccoli |
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botanical name Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 24-30” |
Chinese broccoli, kailaan or gai lan, has small blue-green florets and flavorful leaves and stems. The flavor is sweet and somewhat bitter, with a complexity over other broccoli varieties. It’s also heat and frost-tolerant for an extended season of tender shoots without bolting.
A mild broccolini popular in Asian cuisine is ‘Rapini,’ a broccoli raab (Brassica rapa subsp. rapa). Stems and small crowns are tender, mild, and slightly peppery. They reach only 12 to 14 inches tall and are ready in 45 days. The leaves of both gai lan and broccoli raab are edible, fresh or cooked.
‘China Rose’ Radish Sprouts
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common name ‘China Rose’ Radish Sprouts |
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botanical name Raphanus sativus ‘China Rose’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 2” |
Radish sprouts are popular in Chinese and Japanese cuisine and have a spicy, peppery radish flair. ‘China Rose’ is a pretty variety with pinky-red stems topped with little green leaves.
The radish sprouts are ready in four to six days. Use them as a topper for salads, sandwiches, tacos, soups – anything for a crisp, fresh bite. Simmer them in stews and baked dishes for extra flavor.
‘Tokyo Long’ Scallions
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common name ‘Tokyo Long’ Scallions |
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botanical name Allium fistulosum ‘Tokyo Long’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 16-18” |
Also called green, spring, or bunching onions, scallions are an easy-to-grow cool-season favorite, fresh or cooked. Japanese bunching onions like ‘Tokyo Long’ has a mild, sweet, oniony flavor and long, slender stalks.
Along with the slim white onion portion are the tasty blue-green tops, ready to garnish any cuisine. ‘Tokyo Long’ is disease resistant and frost tolerant. It takes about 65 days from sowing to harvest.
Turnip Greens
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common name Turnip Greens |
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botanical name Brassica rapa var. rapa |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 12-15” |
Turnips are a powerhouse of nutrition in the leafy tops and hearty, sweet, smooth-fleshed roots. The centuries-old root vegetable is ideal for planters and raised beds.
Asian varieties present a delicacy in their sweet flavor and crisp white flesh for fresh eating. With tender skins, the little globes are best enjoyed young in raw culinary applications, like grated on a salad or in a slaw, though they’re also delicious roasted. Hakurei (Japanese turnips) are petite salad turnips.
With any variety, young, soft greens are ready quickly when they reach four to five inches tall. The tender leaves are excellent raw or cooked. Pick greens up to one foot tall for cooking; any bigger, they become thick, tough, and bitter.
Sorrel
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common name Sorrel |
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botanical name Rumex spp. |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 12-18” |
Sorrel (Rumex acetosa, R. scutatus) emerges with tender, flavorful leaves in cool-season plantings. Young sorrel is fresh green with a tart, lemony flavor, eaten fresh or cooked (which mellows the tartness).
In colder climates, sorrel grows from spring through fall and enters dormancy over the winter. Harvest continually from spring until frost. If clumps become large or crowded over time, easily divide plants. Sorrel is hardy in zones 3-7.
Red-veined sorrel (Rumex sanguineus) has true green leaves deeply lined with scarlet venation. These perennial herbs are edible and ornamental and make a lovely display with seasonal annuals. Young leaves are soft and fiercely tangy, with a hint of sharp raspberry notes. Older ones become tougher and more bitter.
‘Red Giant’ Mustard
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common name ‘Red Giant’ Mustard |
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botanical name Brassica juncea ‘Red Giant’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 12-24” |
The ornamental purple-red leaves of ‘Red Giant’ are bold in the cool-season display and in the kitchen. With a peppery, nose-tingling bite, they spice up the palette.
Dark mustards are large with green stems and veins, and form a loose rosette. Beautiful in a container or border edge, the mustard pairs well with pansies, violas, snapdragon, and other cold hardy annuals. They are slow to bolt and tolerate cold and warm temperatures.
Pick the scarlet foliage at any growth stage – as sprouts, microgreens, baby, or full leaves. Spiciness intensifies as they grow larger.
Komatsuna Japanese Spinach
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common name Komatsuna Japanese Spinach |
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botanical name Brassica rapa var. perviridis |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 12-20” |
Komatsuna is a traditional Japanese vegetable that blends the taste of smooth spinach with mild mustard hints, sweet and not bitter. The nutrition profile is high in vitamins C, A, and K, with additional minerals like folate, beta-carotene, and iron. These mustards contain more calcium than spinach.
Maturing in 45 to 60 days, Komatsuna is best around 30 to 40 days for tender, soft growth. Plants withstand heat (though will bolt in extended hot conditions) and are cold-hardy.
