VegetableCabbage
Chun Yu Cabbage
Chun Yu Cabbage is a hybrid pak choi bred for the gardener who wants speed and reliability. Reaching harvest in just 40 to 50 days, this medium-sized Shanghai pak choi delivers compact plants with deep green leaves and short petioles that grow 12 to 18 inches tall. It thrives across hardiness zones 2 through 10, making it accessible whether you're in a cold spring garden or a warm summer bed. What truly sets Chun Yu apart is its exceptional dual-season adaptability and remarkable resistance to bolting, so you can plant it in spring, summer, or fall and count on consistent harvests rather than surprise flower stalks.
Photo © True Leaf Market
Growing Conditions
USDA Zone
2-10
Sunlight
Full Sun
Water
Moderate
Soil
Well-drained Loam, Tolerates Poor Soils
Growth Stats
18 in
Height
TypeUpright
Spacing
18
Plant Profile
Sunlight
Full Sun
Water
Moderate
Zones
2-10
Size
18in H x ?in W
Growth
—
Care
High
Hover over chart points for details
Highlights
Chun Yu's best trait is how reliably it resists bolting across temperature swings. The hybrid vigor shows immediately in the compact, upright growth habit and the notably short leaf stems that pack leaves tightly together, creating an attractive plant that's easy to harvest and eat. Its heat and cold tolerance means you're not racing against the calendar, and the medium maturity window positions it perfectly for succession planting through the growing season.
Common Uses
Chun Yu is harvested for its entire plant, eaten fresh in stir-fries, soups, and quick-cooked vegetable dishes. The tender leaves and petioles (the leaf stems) are the prized edible parts, used raw in salads or cooked quickly to preserve their delicate texture. In Asian kitchens, it's the vegetable that hits the wok minutes after harvest, the one you grow to replace the expensive supermarket bunches with something fresher and far more flavorful.
Growing Timeline
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Care Instructions
Direct Sow
Direct sow Chun Yu seeds outdoors in spring after the last frost or in summer and fall for successive harvests. The variety's suitability for spring, summer, and fall planting makes it one of the most flexible pak choi varieties you can grow. Sow seeds in prepared garden beds or containers, keeping soil consistently moist until germination.
Harvesting
Chun Yu reaches harvest in 40 to 50 days from direct seeding. You can harvest the entire plant when it reaches full size (12 to 18 inches tall), or begin harvesting outer leaves once the plant is established, allowing the center to continue growing for extended picking. The compact growth habit and tight leaf structure make it easy to spot when plants are ready; harvest in the morning when leaves are crisp and full of moisture.
Growing Calendar
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Companion Planting
Ecology & Traits
Edible
Scientific Classification
Brassica rapa var chinensis
Family
Brassicaceae
Genus
Brassica
Growth Habit
Upright
Native Status
L48 (I)AK (I)HI (I)CAN (I)GL (I)
History & Origin
“Chun Yu represents modern hybrid vegetable breeding focused on solving a real problem: pak choi's notorious tendency to bolt in the heat of spring or summer. This Shanghai pak choi hybrid was developed to deliver the tender leaves and quick growth of the species while adding stability across wider temperature ranges. The breeding effort reflects decades of commercial and home gardening experience, where gardeners repeatedly lost summer crops to unexpected flowering.”