Sunday, December 14, 2014

Kai Lan

I sowed some Kai Lan seeds a few weeks ago, and tiny seedlings began to appear on the third day. I guess I sowed too many seeds, and got to thin out the seedlings as they are very close together. The packet says it is the Hong Kong Kai Lan variety.


at 21 days
I transferred some of the seedlings to this container.


 32 days
This is the container which I sowed the seeds in. After I thin out  and transferred most of the seedlings, there are 8 left in their original place. One later wilted.


38 days
They were growing rather slow at first..


 45 days - harvest day! 
in just a space of one week later, they really grew!
The leaves are huge, but I can tell by touching the leaves and the stems, they are young and firm, just right for picking! I could leave them a little longer and let them grew a little more, but I was really impatient to taste my kailan! :)


My kailan harvest. 

I harvested them this evening and these are stir-fried with lots of garlic, so good! Very tasty. I can taste the difference from the ones bought from the market, homegrown is so much yummier. The leaves and stems are young and tender. I should grow more of these! 



The rest of the kailan are rather slow in growing, and they are from the same batch of seeds that I sowed 45 days ago! I guess that this container did not get the morning sun, as the other container did. I placed them in different areas at my front porch, due to space limitation. This container only gets the mid-morning to late afternoon sun. I need to reorganize the positions of my vegetable containers, but it is a headache with so limited space.


I cut the stems a few inches from the base. The purplish part close to the soil, is the hard and woody stem, the green part above it, the young and tender stem. Hopefully there will be new side shoots soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.




My spring onions, which I have fully harvested last week. Photo was taken weeks earlier. Cannot get enough of these, I love spring onions! Of course, there's another new batch growing! :)

Happy Gardening !

I'm sharing this post with Garden Tuesday @ Sidewalk Shoes




7 comments:

  1. I don't even know what kailan is?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joyce, that's quite a good harvest you've got there! Oh yes, freshly harvested vegetables taste very good. I had some kangkung growing in my garden once and I harvested them for soup. And wow, they were so crunchy and tasty. I should consider planting leafy veges too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's very good and fresh harvest from garden! How you cook them? I must visit your cooking blog now! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Joyce!
    Oh it is so lovely to see your garden growing. We haven't had sun here in 9 days now! They say we should have some by the end of the week. Fingers crossed:)

    Your Kailen looks so nice and healthy. I admit, I did have to look it up but I must say, I was kinda close. I thought it looked a bit like Kale. A quick stir-fry with lots of garlic is how I would eat it too.

    There must be something you can do with about your limited space. I hear vertical gardens are all the rage now. Perhaps you could look into that.

    And to have Spring Onions, oh my. I do love them. It is just so wonderful to see things growing, Joyce. Thank you so much for sharing your garden:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Joyce! I planted some kai lan recently. I just sow the seeds directly to a pot outside. The seedlings were doing fine till a heavy rain. Some of the seedlings were smashed. Some are still growing now :-) You have a great weekend :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Joyce,

    Your potted garden looks great with the Kai Lan and the Spring Onion. How did you cook the Kai Lan?

    ReplyDelete
  7. hi Joyce,
    love your blog....it heats up my desire want to start home gardening again despite drastic failures especially growing vegetables...BTW, where do you get your seedling from???

    ReplyDelete