Crop type: Salad Leaves
Brassica rapa (Chinensis Group) ‘Summer Breeze’ AGM
Common name: Pak choi ‘Summer Breeze’ AGM
Crop slug: salad-leaves
This Allotment Pro editorial draft summarises the cited RHS cultivar profile and its linked crop guidance. Check the sources and adjust cultivation decisions for local conditions.RHS cultivar profile
1 - Overview
‘Summer Breeze’ is an award-winning pak choi with useful resistance to bolting and good tolerance of both heat and cold. It can be harvested as tender baby leaves for salads or left to form an upright head with succulent pale-green stalks for stir-fries. This flexibility makes it valuable in mixed salad-leaf sowings during warmer conditions that cause many oriental greens to flower.
Steady moisture, fertile soil and repeat small sowings still give the most reliable harvest. Pick baby foliage young, or provide more space for mature rosettes.
2 - Size
- Ultimate height
- 0.1–0.5 metre
- Ultimate spread
- 0.1–0.5 metre
- Time to ultimate size
- One year
- Habit
- Columnar upright
Space about 8–10cm apart for baby leaves, around 20cm for semi-mature plants or 25–30cm for full heads. Mature pak choi commonly reaches 30–45cm tall.
3 - Growing conditions
- Suitable soils
- Chalk, clay, loam or sand
- Moisture
- Moist but well drained
- Preferred pH
- Acid, alkaline or neutral
Enrich the soil with mature compost or well-rotted manure. Consistent moisture keeps stalks succulent and reduces stress-induced bolting, but roots should never remain waterlogged. Containers require frequent summer checks.
4 - Position and hardiness
- Light
- Full sun, with light shade useful in hot weather
- Exposure
- Sheltered
- Hardiness
- H3
Use a sunny position for early and late crops and cooler light shade during summer. Cloches or fleece protect spring seedlings from abrupt cold, while fine mesh shields tender leaves from pests.
5 - Colour and seasonal interest
The compact upright rosette carries broad fresh-green leaf blades on succulent green to pale-green stalks. Baby leaves form a neat open cluster, while a mature plant develops a substantial columnar head. The foliage should remain entirely green, without the white stems of ‘Ivory’ or purple upper surfaces of ‘Red Choi’.
Harvest before a yellow brassica flower stem develops. The bolt-resistant character lengthens the useful leafy stage but does not make flowering impossible under stress.
6 - Botanical details
- Family
- Brassicaceae
- Native to Great Britain and Ireland
- No
- Foliage
- Deciduous
- Habit
- Columnar upright
- Name status
- Unresolved
- RHS recognition
- Award of Garden Merit
Genus
Brassica includes annual, biennial and perennial plants with alternate, often glaucous leaves, taproots and clusters of cross-shaped yellow or white flowers. Many forms have been bred as food crops, including cabbages, turnips, mustards and pak choi.
Safety
Young leaves and succulent stalks are edible raw or cooked. Wash thoroughly, inspect leaf bases and use only crops free from treatments unsuitable for edible produce.
7 - How to grow
Cultivation
Sow one or two seeds per module from spring or sow outdoors after frost risk in drills about 2cm deep. Thin gradually and keep plants well watered. Baby leaves may be ready in roughly 30 days; larger heads take about 45–75 days.
Pick a few outer baby leaves while preserving the centre for regrowth, or cut a complete compact head at its base. Light summer shade and morning watering support the cultivar’s bolt resistance. Remove crowded or yellowing foliage to maintain airflow.
Propagation
Propagate from seed. Make small succession sowings so a fresh baby-leaf batch is ready as older plants approach maturity or bolting.
Suggested locations
- Mixed salad-leaf bed
- Patio container or growing bag
- Raised vegetable bed
- Lightly shaded summer plot
- Unheated greenhouse for autumn cropping
Pruning
No pruning is required. Outer-leaf picking is a harvest method. If a flower stem begins to form, remove it and harvest the plant promptly.
Pests
May be susceptible to flea beetle. Slugs, snails, cabbage caterpillars and pigeons may also damage tender leaves; use fine mesh and inspect seedlings.
Diseases
May be susceptible to powdery mildew. Maintain spacing, even moisture and airflow, and remove declining plants.