What it is
Napa Cabbage (Brassica rapa pekinensis) is in the Brassicaceae (Mustard) family. The crinkly Chinese cabbage behind kimchi — sweet, mild, and best in cool weather.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it even, and give it rich soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.0. Space plants about 12 in apart. Expect roughly 70–80. Cool-season.
How it's used
Napa Cabbage is used: raw, cooked, fermented (kimchi).
🔎 How to identify it
- Elongated pale crinkled head
- Tightly packed leaves
- White ribs
Edibility
How to grow & propagate napa cabbage
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate napa cabbage
The cabbage family is a cool-season seed crop. Start the heading types (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) in trays 5–6 weeks before you want them in the ground; sow the fast roots and greens (radish, turnip, mustard, arugula) straight into the bed. They all cross with each other readily, so if you're saving seed, only let one variety of a given species flower at a time.
Growing napa cabbage in Texas
Give it full sun and rich soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
This is a cool-season crop. On the Texas Gulf Coast that means your real windows are fall and late winter, not summer — sow as the heat breaks in September–October and again in late winter, and you'll harvest through our mild winters while the rest of the country is frozen out.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 70–80 before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: head and leaves.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.