Guest Post: Mizuna Flowers

Some of you will have seen this post before, because I linked to Marigold's post (originally dated June 4th) in June's Salad Days. Marigold is closing her blog and has kindly let me reproduce her post here, so we can keep her discovery going for the 52 Week Salad Challenge :)


I’ve been growing mizuna as a leaf crop for some years now. In the past I just sighed and sowed another batch when the plants started to bolt, which happens quite quickly in hot weather. But last week some impulse made me decide to nip out the flower shoots to see if I could keep the leaves going a bit longer. And a further impulse made me pop one of the shoots into my mouth just to see what it tasted like…

Then I had to kick myself for all the years I’d just written the plants off as soon as they flowered, because the flower buds are LUSH! And, even better, having nipped out the leading flower shoot, the plants are now producing lots of delicious side shoots, so they’ll be productive for a lot longer. I will make another sowing, but it’s good to know that I’ll be able to keep on harvesting tender young flower shoots until the new batch is ready.

Mizuna a very easy to grow cut-and-come-again Japanese mustard green. Like rocket, it is relatively unattractive to the wretched molluscs which usually devastate any lettuce I try to grow. With successional sowings it has a long season outdoors here in the south of England and would probably grow year-round in a polytunnel. I primarily use mizuna raw in salads, but it’s also good in stir-fries and soup.

I buy mizuna seed from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.

Thanks Marigold for letting me use your post and good luck with whatever you decide to do next. I hope we'll still see you around for a #saladchat on Twitter from time to time.

NB If anyone else would like to write a Guest Post for the 52 Week Salad Challenge, I'm particularly looking for posts on holiday watering (especially homemade/recycled solutions) and posts from anyone who's using hydroponics or hotbed techniques for salad growing. Again, homemade/recycled solutions are especially welcome plus any hints, tips, pros and cons you have about using these techniques.

Comments

  1. Jo@awholeplotoflove25 July 2012 at 08:56

    It sounds like an interesting idea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP25 July 2012 at 08:59

    awholeplotoflove - edible flowers especially those of plants like mizuna, rocket and kale have been one of THE big discoveries of the 52 Week Salad Challenge so far :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anna26 July 2012 at 22:21

    Will have to try this out VP. Thanks to Marigold for the tip.

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP20 September 2012 at 11:50

    Anna - let me know what you think :)

    ReplyDelete

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