Bok Choy (Pak Choi)

Grow Bok Choy Sprouts!

Soak: Put 1-2 Tbsp. seed in a wide mouth jar with a sprouting lid. Add water, swirl, and drain. Refill jar with water and soak 1-2 hours.  Drain well and invert jar at an angle on a sprouting rack, or in a bowl or drain rack.

• 10” x 20” gardening trays (1-inch-tall preferred), 1 with holes + 1 without. Smaller microgreen trays also work well.
• Good quality organic starting soil mix
• Parchment paper or unbleached paper towel (optional).
• Dome lids (clear or black) or plastic sheet
• Organic seed
• Mister bottle, cup measures, garden spray nozzle (optional)
• Scissors or sharp knife

1. Don’t soak small or medium size seed. Small seed such as broccoli and arugula are easier to sprinkle on top of the soil if they are not soaked.

2. Prepare Soil
Add water to top of the bag (or each tray) 12 hours ahead of use until almost fully hydrated. Rehydrate the bag as necessary. If you were to put the soil in your hand and squeeze it, you should not be able to get much more than a drop of water out of it for the perfect moisture content. If you want to mist the seed after putting it on the soil, reduce the water hydration of the bagged soil a bit.
TIP: To check for overwatering, tip the tray to one end. Water should not pool enough to drip out of the tray.

3. Fill Trays with Soil
Use a tray with holes. Fill with 3/4-1.5” of soil. The closer to the top of the tray the better aid to air circulation. Use a block or your hand to smooth and flatten the soil without compacting it. The back of a tablespoon or spatula smooths out the valleys. You can wait to put the tray without holes under until after unstacking/uncovering or add it to the bottom now.
TIP: Place a layer or two of paper towel on the bottom of the tray before adding soil for easier cleanup.

4. Sow the Seed
Sprinkle the seed evenly over the soil in the tray (pizza cheese shaker, spoon). The seeding density depends on the stage at which you’re planning to harvest. For small seeds for 1-week microgreens, start with approximately 15 -28 grams (1.5 – 2 Tbsp). Sow slightly less seed for 2-3 week microgreens.

Seeds do not need misting if the soil has enough moisture. Mist if you need more moisture. Use a spray bottle or a garden spray nozzle set to light mist. The soil should be moist throughout, but not soaking wet.

5. Cover the Seed
Doing away with soil as a seed cover decreases the work and time it takes to grow the greens. If stacking the trays on top of each other, use a cover directly on the seed like parchment paper, a plastic sheet or wet unbleached paper towel layer. When not stacking trays, the seed will need protection from drying out by using a dome/lid. Use a clear dome or an inverted 10 x 20” tray without holes. For smaller trays, use several layers of unbleached paper towels folded onto itself with or without a plastic sheet covering the top.
TIP: Most microgreens will grow taller when you keep the light out at the beginning, but this may make the stem weaker. Most seeds germinate in the light no problem.

6. Stack Trays or Cover with Lids
Stacking helps to quickly force the roots into the soil, provides darkness, promotes even germination/growth. Stack 2-5 filled trays on top of each other with an empty tray on the top of the stack with a weight in it. Check at least once a day to see if the trays need water. Cabbage family seed sprouts quickly, so stack for 2-3 days. Others stack 3-5 days.

If choosing not to stack, simply cover the trays with clear or black-out plastic, a lid or dome. Check at least once a day to see if the trays need water. Cover for the same number of days as above.

7. Expose to Indirect Sunlight, Florescent/LED or Grow Lights.
After 2-5 days, the microgreens should be ready for light. If the microgreens begin to get quite tall and leggy, this is an indication that they may need a bit more light.

8. Water the Growing Microgreens
Check the seed once or twice daily and water as needed. The soil should be moist, not wet. Once trays are unstacked, add water from below into the no holes tray as necessary.

9. Harvest!
Microgreens are harvested at 1-3 weeks with scissors or a sharp knife. Make sure microgreens are not damp before storing. If needed, you may use a small fan or salad spinner to dry the microgreens before storing in a sealed container in the fridge.

Instead of harvesting all at once, you can start to harvest microgreens as soon as the first two leaves are spread out. Take only what you need for your meal and allow the rest to keep growing or put the tray in the fridge loosely covered and a plastic bag or dome to harvest another day. Water as necessary.

10. Enjoy!
Microgreens make everything better, so have fun with them and add them to your favourite dishes!

Helpful tips:

• To moisten your bag of soil, add water ahead until almost fully hydrated.
• The roots grow under the soil so it works well to water from below if the tray has holes in it, or open the side of the tray and pour water beside the soil when using flexible plastic trays. Otherwise misting or watering from the top works well too.

TIP: After draining, tap the shake the jar gently to remove excess moisture. Rotate the jar and tap gently a few more times.  

Rinse: Twice a day, refill jar with cold water, swirl, and drain well by tapping excess water from jar.

Enjoy! Ready to eat in 5 days. Refrigerate to store. (Sprouts store best when they are fairly dry. If you need to store immediately after rinsing, spin dry first.)

Helpful tips:

Some sprouts tend to clump together as they grow. To separate, fill the jar with water, remove the screen and stir gently with a fork during the regular rinse. Remove hulls if desired. Drain well as usual.

The drier they are the better sprouts keep. Be sure to let sprouts grow another half day after the final sorting rinse before storing in the fridge. Optional: put folded paper towel on top of the sprouts in the jar. Put lid on and refrigerate turned upside down. This removes excess moisture.

If your home is very warm during the summer months, it may help to rinse the sprouts three times a day with cold water. Stir gently if clumping.

To remove the hulls and unsprouted seeds from leafy sprouts, use a special sorting rinse. Pull sprouts out of the jar into a large bowl filled with water. Swish gently using fingers to separate the tangled roots. Most hulls will separate and rise or sink. Discard the hulls.  Collect the sprouts back to the jar with or without aid of a strainer.   Return the sprouting closure and drain so you can continue for half a day more of sprouting.

Some brassicas (cabbage family) like radish and broccoli develop very fuzzy root hairs the longer you leave them undisturbed and these can be mistaken for mould. You will even see these after a few days of storage in the fridge. Stirring and rinsing removes the root hairs for a time.

Jar
Sprouting Tray
Easy Sprouter

"Bok choy has been enjoyed in China and other parts of Asia for over 1, 500 years. And bok choy is by no means a total newcomer to North America either, having been cultivated on the continent for over 100 years. About 95 million pounds of Asian vegetables—the produce trading category that includes bok choy—are brought into the U.S. each year (primarily from Mexico). However, another 35 million pounds are produced in the U.S. The state of California dominates this domestic production, with smaller amounts being produced in Arizona and Texas. Some marketplace statistics on bok choy combine production of this vegetable together with overall cabbage production. If this approach is used, the numbers go up dramatically, since more than 2 billion pounds of cabbage are produced in the U.S. each year." Source: whfoods.org (http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=152)