A fast, feathery Japanese mustard green with mild peppery leaves that regrow after cutting and hold up through light frost.
Brassica rapa var. nipposinica · also called Japanese mustard greens, kyona
Windows are counted from the average date of your last spring frost.
Ready for a first cut in about three weeks and a full harvest in five, mizuna gives salad greens far earlier than head lettuce and tolerates cool, dim conditions that stall most crops.
A little history. A leafy form of the same species as turnip and bok choy, selected in Japan for deeply notched leaves and many slender stalks rather than a swollen root.
Sow seeds ¼ inch (6 mm) deep, and aim for 6 inches (15 cm) between plants once thinned. Sow shallow and keep the top half-inch moist until sprouts show; break any surface crust after heavy rain. Seedlings emerge in 4–8 days.
Water every 2–3 days in warm weather; less in cool, damp spells. Water when the top inch of soil feels dry. Aim for about 1 inch per week including rain.
Work compost in before sowing, then side-dress once after the first cut. What to use: balanced 5–5-5 organic or a nitrogen-leaning liquid feed.
Snip out any flower stalk as soon as you see it. Removing it buys a week or two of leaf harvest before the plant quits.
It's ready when outer leaves reach 4–8 in and the plant has a full spray of notched leaves. Cut before any central stalk starts to lengthen. For repeat cuts, take outer leaves with scissors 1 in above the crown, leaving the center growing. For a full harvest, cut the whole rosette 1–2 in above the soil; it will resprout once or twice.
Wash, spin dry, and refrigerate loose in a bag with a dry paper towel for 5–7 days. Do not store wet; the thin leaves collapse.
Sow a short row every 2 weeks from early spring until temps top 80 °F (27 °C), then resume in late summer for a fall run.
In mild-winter areas, plants sown in early fall hold under a low tunnel and resume growth in late winter, then bolt as days lengthen.
Wasabi
Both are cabbage-family plants that want cool air, steady moisture, and dappled light, so mizuna makes an easy filler in the shaded, damp ground wasabi needs. Watch for shared cabbage-family pests, and note that mizuna finishes in weeks while wasabi takes years.
Garden Pea
A pea trellis on the south side throws light shade across the bed by late spring, which can hold off bolting for an extra week or two once days warm. The pea roots also leave nitrogen behind for whatever follows next season.
Sweet Alyssum
Its low mats of tiny flowers reliably draw in hoverflies, whose larvae eat aphids. Since aphids are mizuna's steadiest greenhouse and spring problem, an alyssum edging earns its space.
Radish
Flea beetles often hit radish leaves first, sparing nearby mizuna. This only helps if you pull and dispose of the chewed radish tops rather than leaving a beetle nursery in the bed.
Lettuce
Same sowing dates, same water needs, same shallow rooting, and different pest lists. Interplanting the two gives a mixed cut-and-come-again bed without either crop crowding the other.
Chives
A strong-smelling onion-family edging can make it harder for aphids and cabbage moths that hunt by smell to home in on the crop. The effect is partial, not a substitute for netting.
Fennel
Fennel roots release compounds that stunt most garden vegetables, and shallow-rooted greens sitting alongside it grow poorly. Plant fennel in its own corner, where its flowers can still feed hoverflies and tiny parasitic wasps.
Peppermint
Mint spreads by runners and will thread through a low bed of greens within one season, making clean cutting impossible. Grow it in a sunken pot or a separate bed.
Kale, cabbage, broccoli, and turnips share flea beetles, cabbage worms, and clubroot with mizuna. A solid block of cabbage-family plants concentrates all three; break the planting up and keep the rotation gap honest.
Sunflower
Sunflowers root widely and shallowly and cast heavy shade, out-muscling a low leaf crop for water and light by midsummer. Keep mizuna at least 3 ft clear on the sunny side.
Give the cabbage family 4 years away from this spot before any of its relatives return.
The tomato family, the pea and bean family or the carrot family thrive in this ground next season.
A heavy feeder that leaves little behind — expect depleted nitrogen and possible flea beetle or clubroot carryover. Keep cabbage-family crops out of this bed for 4 years. Follow with peas or beans to rebuild nitrogen, or with tomatoes, carrots, or parsnips.
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