If You Can't Finish This Vegetable, Throw It in a Flower Pot – It Will Grow and Grow!
There's a vegetable that people both love and hate – you love it because it's incredibly easy to propagate; just cut off the stalks and plant them in pots, and they grow incredibly fast, often filling the pot completely in no time, growing and growing endlessly, you can chop off a bit and eat it, just like chives, there's simply too much to finish.
Choy sum is a typical southern vegetable, and is now eaten by many people in the north. It's a staple in family meals, typically available in large quantities from April to May, and in warmer areas, it’s available as early as spring.
If you have choy sum that you can't finish in your kitchen, or leftover stalks from picking, you can save them. Cut out a thicker portion, about 10cm, leaving 1-2 small leaves, and then dry the cut end in a well-ventilated, shaded place.
Find a flowerpot and prepare some peat or leaf mold soil, then insert the stalk directly into the soil, about 2cm deep, just like propagating pothos, then water thoroughly and place it in a well-ventilated area, out of direct sunlight; within a week, it will root and sprout.
When propagating, maintain a temperature of 15°C or higher, ensure good ventilation, choy sum has an incredibly strong rooting ability, once it takes root, it will enter a rapid growth phase; remember to keep the soil moist, and once leaves appear, expose it to more sunlight, and apply fertilizer regularly, use a balanced nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer, after half a month, it will grow very lush.
Choy sum prefers a warm, humid environment; during its growth, it must have plenty of sunlight and sufficient nutrients; the faster it grows, the faster it grows than pothos; when should it be harvested?
You can eat any tender shoots, and cutting off tender shoots is like topping; while eating, it keeps growing, after eating 3-4 batches, give it a heavy prune, bury some granular fertilizer in the pot, and it will quickly start a new growth cycle; if well taken care of, your harvest will be very large!
Choy sum can also be propagated by seeds; the yield from seed propagation is very high; from planting to harvesting takes less than 20 days; interested flower friends can buy some seeds to try, the best time for choy sum planting and growth is from March to July and August.
How to eat choy sum deliciously?
Choy sum is very delicious when stir-fried with chili peppers; here's the method:
After picking choy sum, wash and dry it, prepare chili peppers cut into silk, garlic sliced, and some scallions and peppercorns; heat oil in a pan, and when hot, add garlic, scallions, and peppercorns to sauté for 2 minutes, then add the choy sum and stir-fry for 2 minutes, then add chili pepper silk and stir-fry together, finally add salt for seasoning.
Some people don't like the taste of stir-fried choy sum, feeling it’s a bit astringent; before stir-frying, you can blanch the choy sum in boiling water; the blanching time shouldn't be too long, when the color turns green, take it out, and then rinse with cold water before stir-frying, this will help maintain a certain texture!
Besides choy sum, many vegetable roots from your home garden can be used for planting, such as scallion roots, celery roots, and cabbage roots; interested flower friends can try it!
