Hedou micro dwarf bok choy

Hedou micro dwarf bok choy (Brassica rapa) is one of the smallest, and fastest growing, varieties of bok choy.  It is sometimes called an extra dwarf, or micro dwarf variety, and is far smaller than baby bok choy.

I recorded the number of days this takes to grow a few times, this little one takes about a month from planting the seed to harvesting full size plants, and takes about 10 weeks from planting the seed until the next seeds are ready for harvest.  

Hedou micro bok choy

Last winter I had a container of soil that I planned to grow something in during the warmer months.  I didn't think of using this for anything else until mid winter, and there was not a huge amount of time before I wanted to plant something else in there.  

Rather than leaving it empty over winter, I grew some hedou bok choy in there.  This had ample space for root growth, and could fit a lot of plants.  

Once they flowered and died I was able to plant some perennial buckwheat in the container.  This meant I got to eat some of these bok choy, I refreshed my seed stocks, and didn't have to tie up useable space growing this as the container would have otherwise just been empty.  This was a great use of (otherwise unused) space.

Micro bok choy

All varieties of Brassica rapa cross pollinate readily.  I didn't want to cross this with other bok choy or tokyo bekana.  For this reason I grow some Hedou bok extra dwarf choy in my garden, but don't let it go to seed.  

To ensure I keep my line pure, I grew some Hedou micro dwarf Bok Choy in my greenhouse and only collect seed from these plants.  Seed set is lower in the greenhouse as few pollinators live in there, and many are captured by my sundews.  The lack of pollinators also means the chances of cross pollination are incredibly low.  

Hedou micro bok choy

These plants grew very fast.  Some were culled/eaten, others were allowed to flower and set seed.

Even though my line is not crossed with any other variety, there is a chance to add some selective pressure.  I tend to cull heavily and only allow individuals to flower if they possess all the traits I want to see.

Even though these plants are tiny, I want strong vigorous plants.  Anything that appeared weak was culled.  I don't want weak genetics in my line. 

I grow everything organically so want my plants to have natural resistance to pests.  You will notice holes in many of the leaves, this is unavoidable.  Anything that was affected by a lot of pests was culled.  

Hedou bok choy grows taller when in flower, perhaps 40cm tall, some plants are taller than others.  The flowers are typical yellow brassica flowers.  

Some plants produce very few flowers, these were culled as I want my line to be fertile and simple to save seed from. 

Bok Choy Flowers

Hedou bok choy flowering

The plants allowed to flower and set seed all posses the traits I want to see in this line.  In this way I am keeping the line pure, and I am selecting for desirable traits.  

Seed saving is simple.  As they were pollinated in my greenhouse they would have pollinated one another and little to no crossing with other varieties could have occurred.  I allow the plants to grow and then die naturally.  Then I allow the seed pods to dry on the plant.  Eventually I collected the seeds to plant later.  

I certainly don't get a lot of seed when they are in the greenhouse due to the low numbers of pollinators, but the seed produced is pure and not contaminated with other varieties.  I try to hand pollinate some flowers, but I can't do as good a job as insects.

I sometimes sell seed of Hedou bok choy, as well as other vegetables, if you are interested they are listed on my for sale page.