Mibuna

Mibuna is a traditional Japanese green crop, ideal for greenhouses in winter. Like mizuna, it is a member of the cabbage family and produces green leaves for salads and cooking over a long period.  It is grown in much the same way.  It is less hardy and productive than mizuna, but its narrow strap-like leaves (often with a white midrib) have a more spicy flavour that gardeners enjoy and some slugs don’t (though some like it hot).  It can be harvested as whole plants, but excels as a cut-and-come-again crop.

Seed sown now in containers or borders can produce leaves from October to April or May next. Add in plenty of compost, and sow seed thinly in drills 1cm deep.  Border rows should be about 30cm apart.  Keep the soil moist: dryness encourages bolting, especially in spring-sown crops.  Watch out for flea beetles and slugs.  Cut off and compost overgrown leaves and any flowering stems that appear; it diverts the plant’s energy into growing more fresh leaves.  Use leaves while they are still young.  Eat them raw in salads or lightly steamed or pickled.

Image courtesy of GIY