Plant Encyclopedia

Other Names:  Chinese Cabbage, Wombok

Description:

A culinary delight, featuring light green crinkled leaves forming a dense head; a cool season performer that is great for gardens or large containers; mild pleasant flavor creates a vegetable that is very versatile; great in soups, stews and coleslaw

Edible Qualities

Napa Cabbage is an annual vegetable plant that is commonly grown for its edible qualities. The crinkled oval light green leaves with pointy white spines and tinges of yellow are typically harvested when mature. The leaves have a pleasant taste and a crisp texture.

The leaves are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking

Planting & Growing

Napa Cabbage will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 18 inches. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 12 inches apart. This fast-growing vegetable plant is an annual, which means that it will grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop.

This plant is typically grown in a designated vegetable garden. It does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone over the growing season to conserve soil moisture. This species is not originally from North America.

Napa Cabbage is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. It can be used either as 'filler' or as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, depending on the height and form of the other plants used in the container planting. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.