Taï Saï Rosette pak choi - Brassica rapa var. rosularis

The Pak-choï ‘Taisai’ is an early Chinese cabbage that forms generous, elongated heads with white midribs and dark green foliage, offering great delicacy of flavour. Its growth is very rapid and harvests are staggered from spring to autumn depending on the sowing date. It is an ideal Asian leaf vegetable for extending the salad and wok season.

Chinese cabbages are vegetable plants originating from China and, more generally, from East Asia. They belong, like their European homologues, to the large Brassicaceae family. The Chinese cabbage Taisoi bears the Latin name Brassica rapa var. rosularis; it is also called Rosette cabbage. These cabbages, which were scarcely found outside certain specialist shops just a few years ago, are gradually gaining ground on our market stalls and in our vegetable gardens, to the delight of lovers of Asian cuisine. They are biennial plants cultivated as annuals, brimming with qualities, both gustatory and nutritional.
From a dietary point of view, they are remarkable: low in calories, they are very rich in vitamins C, A and potassium, and also contain a lot of fibre and minerals like calcium.

The cultivar is distributed under several spellings: ‘Taisai’, ‘Tai Sai’, ‘Taï Saï’, ‘Pak-choï Taisaï’, ‘Bok-choï Taïsaï’. It is a non-hybrid open-pollinated seed variety.
The plant forms a semi-erect, vigorous rosette of smooth, dark green leaves borne on large, very fleshy white midribs. These thickened petioles narrow at the base and form a long, compact head, whose stalks remain crunchy even after cooking. A well-nourished plant reaches 25 to 35 cm in height with a spread of about 25 to 30 cm. 45 to 55 days pass between planting and harvest, i.e., 2 to 3 months after sowing. If the young plants are left in place, they send up tall, ramified flowering stems in spring or early summer, bearing clusters of small, four-petalled yellow flowers, typical of cabbages, pollinated by insects. The ‘Taisai’ variety tolerates brief frosts, especially when the heads are formed, but prefers temperate climates and mild winters.

In the kitchen, this cabbage can be eaten both raw and cooked: in salads, quickly stir-fried in a wok, in soups or in gratins.

In the vegetable garden, cultivating the Rosette cabbage is a little more delicate than that of classic cabbages, as it requires more warmth, but it shares the same requirements: a deep soil, excellent manuring and regular moisture. It is planted in full sun. Not very hardy, Chinese cabbages are exclusively late summer and early winter vegetables.

Harvest: the leaves of the rosette cabbage are harvested as needed.

Storage: They keep in the refrigerator for a few days.

The gardener's little tip: To limit watering, we advise you, when the young plants are well developed, to mulch the soil with thin successive layers of grass clippings, if possible mixed with dead leaves. This protection, which allows the soil to stay moist, also reduces weeding.

In the garden, the Chinese cabbage Pak-choï ‘Taisai’ is very well suited to late summer and autumn crops, at the edge of a bed or in close rows for successive harvests. This variety finds its place in a themed vegetable garden dedicated to "Asian flavours", mixed with mizunas like ‘Maserati F1’ for mixed young shoots, with a Chinese Red Giant Mustard, and with the Asian Spinach Fagopyrum dibotrys. These vegetables allow you to compose salads and stir-fries with Asian accents, rich in flavours and textures.