my bok choy is bolting. we have had a pretty cool spring so i don't understand. i grew beautiful bok choy last year, with much warmer temps over all, for the first time ever. beginner's luck?
bolting bok choy why?
Based solely on reading seed pkts, some varieties have more heat tolerance and some have more cold tolerance. Was this the same variety?
Did you plant earlier or later this year, relative to temperatures?
Was it much dryer or wetter?
Bugs or disease or other stress?
The short answer is "I don't know why". However, I like to save seed from OP varieties, so please post the answer if you find one! I would like to be able to make them bolt on command.
Meanwhile, if you let them get good and brown, and collect them in a paper bag, next year or this summer / early fall you can sow them very thickly and harvest many tiny leaves for salad.
Corey
good answer :). i will look up the info & see if it is an OP. then i will see if i can answer everything. then the next spring wave that i already seeded will be consumed as salad!
Mine did the same thing, and I've been feeding them to the chickens, who seem to love them.
I'm still eating the ones that haven't bolted, and have been hiding under the big ones...
rick,
seeds are Fedco 3260SH Shuko Pac Choi (45 days) F-1 hybrid." Baby pac choy with green stems likes cool temperatures but resists bolting for a long time, even in heat." so not OP, or at least not true to seed probably.
however, your question re: relative temps made me think...
last year i started inside & then planted out May 20. i harvested lovely bok choy until a heat spell (80+) in June.
this year i winter-sowed (i.e. outside) & planted out Ap 27. it has been cool here (boston). Bolting started this past w/e (May 9), temps in the 60+)
moisture & stress is similar to last year. a big difference is where they were started, and last year's spring was much warmer.
but maybe going from inside to cooler (even tho warmer outside than this year, it was probably overall cooler outside than inside last year) kept it from wanting to bolt. i will definitely start some inside & outside next year for comparison. it is the only thing i can control, anyway.
I planned to use my old self-collected Bok Choy seed from 2009 for baby greens since I didn't know for sure the comemrical seed was OP - figuring that even a wacky F2 cross would put up tender baby leaves.
This year I have so many different brassicas in the same bed that I doubt any seed will be 'true'. (Unless some strain bolts at a very different time than any other strain.) So I bought some rather big packets and expect to have extra seed for a few years, I I don't trade or give it all away!
>> this year i winter-sowed (i.e. outside) & planted out Ap 27. it has been cool here
Interesting! Bolting sooner after WS ... but planted out a month earlier, and a colder srping ...
>> i will definitely start some inside & outside next year for comparison
Controlling as many variables as possible in gardening still leaves MANY random elelments!
Corey
one random element is the gardener herself!
(FWIW, difference in planting-out times is due to the very late procurement of a community garden plot last year.)
My most random variation is "when will we have a weekend without MUCH rain?"
Second-most-random is: "when will I have time?"
I hope, as I garden for more years, that I will work out habits and patterns that help me think of the things I need to do ahead of time, in order to accomplish things when they need to be done.
Acccumulating things like tools, raised beds, SOIL, perennials and budgets for soil amendments OUGHT TO enable me to just "do things" when I need to do them instead of weeks or months late.
Over the last few years, I typically walk outside on a Saturday morning, thinking "today I will do XYZ".
Then I realize that doing XYZ requires that I have already done ABC, DEF and QRS. On one occasion, those pre-requisites took me TWO YEARS to accomplish. When I finally accomplished XYZ TWO YEARS LATER, I had a feeling of acccomplishment (and some stupidity).
Live, learn.
Repeat as needed.
Corey
*VBG* Thanks, Corey, I needed that. Glad I'm not the only one....
I may be dreaming that "one day I'll be organized" or "I'll know what I'm doing" or "get all down to a system".
Maybe if I live to be 300 years old, retired and vigorous the whole time!
Corey