How to grow Napa cabbage

Brassica rapa · Chinese cabbage, wombok

Cool-season leafy vegetable forming tight, elongated heads. Grows best at 16–21 °C and short days, so late-summer sowings for an autumn crop give the best heads; young plants bolt after frost or cold nights.

Quick facts

Type	Vegetable
Family	Brassicaceae
Light	Full sun
Soil pH	6–6.5
Frost	does not tolerate frost
Soil for sowing	from 10 °C
Germination	5 days
Seedlings ready	28 days
Sowing to harvest	70 days
Where it grows	Greenhouse, Open ground

When to plant

Sow for seedlings about 5 weeks before planting out.

Plant out in open ground about a week after your last spring frost, once the soil is warm.

In an unheated greenhouse everything moves about three weeks earlier.

The first harvest comes about 70 days after the shoots appear.

Frost dates · When to plant

Care

Greenhouse

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Germination	every 2 days	24…29 °C	—
Seedlings	every 2 days	16…21 °C	—
Growth	every 3 days	15…21 °C	nitrogen, at the start of the stage; nitrogen, 10 days into the stage; nitrogen, 20 days into the stage; nitrogen, 30 days into the stage
Harvest	every 2 days	15…21 °C	—

Open ground

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Germination	every 3 days	24…29 °C	—
Seedlings	every 3 days	16…21 °C	—
Growth	every 4 days	15…21 °C	nitrogen, at the start of the stage; nitrogen, 10 days into the stage; nitrogen, 20 days into the stage; nitrogen, 30 days into the stage
Harvest	every 3 days	15…21 °C	—

Growing notes

Light

Needs full sun, 6 or more hours of direct light a day.

Soil

Fertile soil with good structure that holds water, pH 6.0–6.5.

Care

Plant out 3–5 week old seedlings after the last frost, 30–45 cm apart. Keep the soil evenly moist all season, watering deeply rather than little and often. Side-dress with nitrogen after planting or thinning and then every 10 days. Above 24 °C the heads turn bitter and soft. Harvest as soon as the heads are firm and dense — they bolt and lose quality if left.

Pests and diseases of Napa cabbage

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.