“Komatsuna” Japanese Green

Komatsuna is an incredibly versatile green from Japan and Korea with leaves used as a cooking leaf like Kale or Chard, or used raw in salads. It is delicious, cold tolerant and easy to grow all year – you get small plants after about 30 days, or bigger after about 70 days – and you can harvest at any time. There are so many ways to grow this, you can’t really go wrong:

• Either sow direct – or in a seedbed, or in pots and then plant out.
• You can sow several times from spring to autumn.
• The main sowings are in spring and summer.
• You can also sow in late summer/autumn under cover and they will grow overwinter in an unheated polytunnel or greenhouse

So the easiet thing is to sow in a drill about 5cm apart and then progressively thin to about 45cm apart as the plants get bigger, eating the thinnings as you go.

The plant is not only delicious, but also drought and cold resistant.