A new Asian restaurant in my town wants me to grow Napa cabbage for them. Lotsa questions, please bear with me. Can they be grown during the winter in a greenhouse? How deep are their roots? Which is the best cultivar? Will frost or a freeze hurt them?Should I wait until Spring and set them out as transplants, or is it best to direct seed.
Thanks in advance for your answers.
Bill
Ping Farmerdill...Napa Cabbage
Bill, the NAPa type is not one of my specialties. I have grown it but only the generic Michihili and only as a spring crop in Virginia. It was very easy to grow, I treated it very much like iceberg type lettuce. Biggest problem it was a slug magnet. It should do as well as lettuce in a green house, but I have never tried it. Here is Oregon states guides for growing it http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/NWREC/chincabb.html
http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/chincabb.html At the time that I grew it, a very limited number of varieties were available, all open pollinated. Quite a few hybrids on the market today but I have not tried any of them. Even tho we have a significant Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese population, it is not popular in this area. http://www.evergreenseeds.com/headtypnapca.html
Lettuceman.... Although I have not grown Asian veggies in a greenhouse, I have grown a lot of them in-ground (not commercially) and I agree with Farmerdill--- they should not be any more difficult than lettuce. A suggestion-- CALL the folks at Evergreen Seeds (which farmerdill gave), talk with them & get their opinion / suggestions for greenhouse culture.
Best of luck!!
LarryD
Many thanks to you Farmerdill for those excellent links! You're like a garden encyclopedia, and on those rare occasions where you don't know something, you definetly know where to get the information.
Cottonpicker, I appreciate your input also and I plant to contact Evergreen as you suggested.
Thanks again to you both!
Bill