Bok Choy

Put the soil tablet on a saucer and pour 50ml of water over it.
Put on gloves and mix the water into the soil with your hands to make a wet mixture. Watch the soil expand.
Use most of your soil to fill up the pot to around 2cm below the top.
Now place your seed mat on top of the soil (take care not to press down too hard).
Now use the rest of your soil mixture to cover the seed mat.
Remember to wash your hands when you’re done!

Place the pot on a clean saucer in a place with enough light, but not directly in the sun.
Check the soil in the morning, and before bed. If the soil feels dry and crumbly, pour a small amount of clean water over the surface.
Within 1 week you should see a little plant appear from the soil. That means the seeds have germinated and will be ready soon to move into a bigger pot or garden.
If more than one little plant grows, you can thin your bok choy seedling by choosing the strongest-looking one and removing the others. You can eat the picked seedlings like microgreens.

When your bok choy is about as tall as your finger (in approx. 3 weeks), it’s ready to shift into the garden or pot.
Get your bok choy used to life outside: You can harden off your bok choy seedling by putting it in a warm and sheltered spot for 1-2 hours a day and return inside for the night. Do this for 4-5 days, leaving it outside for a little longer each day before you shift it out into the garden forever.

Bok choy will grow best in a sheltered spot with rich soil.
Pots make good bok choy homes too.
It likes some sun but prefers partial sun, and will appreciate afternoon shade during very hot summers.

Bok choy is thirsty. Water it regularly, especially if it’s growing in a pot. You want the soil to stay moist but not wringing wet.
If left in dry soil, it will wilt or bolt to seed.

After about 1 month, you can start harvesting the leaves from your bok choy one by one.
Or wait another couple of weeks, until the plant is about 15cm tall, to harvest the whole plant.

Slugs and snails will nibble on baby bok choy, so create your own pest protection, lay out bait or pick off these slimy pests.
In warmer weather, keep an eye out for the Cabbage White Butterfly: it will lay eggs on your bok choy, and the hungry caterpillars will munch your plant down to the ground.
If you spot White Cabbage Butterflies, protect your plants with an insect mesh (an old net curtain is ideal for this!)

Bok Choy in your gardens