🌱✗ Tested and false“Pak choi can be sown any time through summer without worrying about it”
Pak choi is susceptible to bolting, especially in hot, dry weather, and the standing advice is to favour spring and autumn sowings, reaching for a bolt-resistant variety specifically if you want to sow through summer.
Our read A crop this fast (ready in as little as 30 days) invites sowing whenever there's a gap, but the height of a warm, dry summer is exactly the window where that habit backfires.
What to do: Sow through spring and autumn without much worry. For a summer sowing, choose a bolt-resistant, heat-tolerant variety such as 'Summer Breeze', keep it consistently watered, and give it partial shade if you can.
1 source
- RHSSusceptible to bolting, especially in hot, dry weather; spring and autumn crops recommended, summer crops need bolt-resistant varieties
“Pak choi is a tender summer crop that can't handle cold”
It runs the other way. Pak choi is notably hardy for a fast leafy crop, and late sowings can crop on into autumn and even winter given a little protection from a cloche or fleece. Its real weak point is heat, not cold.
Our read The intuition that a quick, tender-looking leaf crop must be a summer-only one gets this backwards. The season worth protecting it through is the tail end of the year, not the height of summer.
What to do: Don't stop sowing after summer. A late batch under a cloche or fleece can keep pak choi coming well into the part of the year most other quick leaf crops have already finished.
1 source
- Gardener's WorldPak choi is hardier than many other leafy crops, so late sowings will crop in autumn and even winter, if given a little protection with a cloche or some fleece
“Pak choi is a quick salad crop, so direct-sow it like lettuce or rocket”
Pak choi resents root disturbance and is best raised in module trays rather than a seedbed or direct-sown row, unlike many other quick leafy crops that don't mind either method.
Our read It looks like the same category of fast salad leaf as lettuce or rocket, which is exactly why the direct-sow habit transfers over when it shouldn't.
What to do: Raise pak choi in modules and transplant it, rather than direct-sowing or thinning it in a seedbed, to avoid disturbing the roots at the stage it's most sensitive.
1 source
- Garden OrganicThese plants resent root disturbance and are best raised in module trays only
“Small holes from flea beetle mean a pak choi crop is ruined”
Flea beetle damage on pak choi is rated as cosmetic only, unlike the more serious rating it carries on some other brassicas.
Our read Small shot-holes in the leaves look alarming on a crop you're about to eat, but the plant itself isn't meaningfully weakened by them here.
What to do: Mesh over seedlings is still cheap insurance, and worth doing, but a few scattered holes on an established plant aren't a reason to write the crop off or reach for anything stronger.
1 source
- RHSFlea beetles: cosmetic damage only
“It doesn't matter what time of day you water pak choi, as long as the soil stays moist”
Watering in the morning is recommended, because evening watering leaves damp soil overnight, which is exactly the condition that draws slugs and snails, already the biggest pest risk to this crop.
Our read Consistent moisture is the right general instinct, but the timing turns out to matter too, for a reason that has nothing to do with the plant itself and everything to do with what the wet soil attracts after dark.
What to do: Water in the morning rather than the evening where you can, so the soil surface has the day to dry down before slugs become active.
1 source
- RHSWater consistently to keep the soil moist; the best time to do so is in the morning, to avoid attracting slugs and snails overnight
