VegetableCabbage
Savoy Tatsoi Cabbage
Savoy Tatsoi is a cool-season Asian brassica that delivers tender, heavily textured leaves in just 40 to 49 days. This heirloom annual grows from USDA zones 2 through 10, reaching 12 to 18 inches tall with a distinctive spinach-like appearance created by dark green, savoyed foliage crowning thick, pale green stems. The plant's remarkable adaptability means it performs differently depending on season: in summer it stands upright and compact, while in winter it hugs the ground in a low rosette. Best of all, you can harvest individual leaves continuously for several weeks, making this a plant that keeps giving.
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
Spacing
18
Plant Profile
Sunlight
Full Sun
Water
Moderate
Zones
2-10
Size
18in H x ?in W
Growth
—
Care
Moderate
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Highlights
Dark green, heavily savoyed leaves with a spinach-like silhouette and pale green petioles make Savoy Tatsoi visually striking in the garden and on the plate. The plant's dual personality, growing tall and open in warm months then settling into a tight rosette when temperatures drop, offers growers both flexibility and seasonal interest. Reaching maturity in under seven weeks, it captures the essence of Asian greens while thriving across nearly the entire continental United States.
Common Uses
Savoy Tatsoi's tender leaves work beautifully in raw salads where their savoyed texture catches dressings, and they're equally at home sautéed as a wilted green or added to stir-fries and soups. The individual leaves can be harvested while small and tender for delicate applications, or allowed to mature for heartier cooking preparations. Its rapid growth makes it especially valuable in spring and fall gardens where you want quick, nutritious greens before or after the main growing season.
Growing Timeline
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Care Instructions
Start Indoors
Start seeds indoors 4 to 6 weeks before your transplant date if you prefer earlier harvests, though Savoy Tatsoi is quite amenable to direct sowing. Keep seedlings at temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit for steady germination and growth. Transplant outdoors after hardening off gradually over 7 to 10 days.
Transplant Outdoors
Transplant seedlings outdoors when soil temperature reaches 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and they have developed 2 to 3 true leaves. Space plants 18 inches apart in rows spaced 18 inches apart. Cool-season timing is critical: aim for spring plantings at least 4 to 6 weeks before summer heat, or summer plantings at least 10 to 12 weeks before hard frost.
Direct Sow
Direct sow seeds in prepared beds at a depth of approximately 1/4 inch, spacing seeds about 6 inches apart and thinning to 18 inches as seedlings develop their true leaves.
Harvesting
Begin harvesting individual outer leaves once the plant is actively growing, typically starting around day 30 to 35 and continuing through maturity at day 40 to 49. You can pick leaves continuously for several weeks by harvesting the outer, oldest leaves first while leaving the central crown to continue producing. For baby leaf or microgreen harvests, cut at just 10 to 20 days for the most tender product. If you prefer a full head harvest, wait until the plant has developed its characteristic form and leaves feel firm; in cooler months the rosette will be lower and denser, while summer plants stand more upright.
Growing Calendar
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Companion Planting
Ecology & Traits
Edible
Scientific Classification
Brassica rapa var. narinosa
Family
Brassicaceae
Genus
Brassica
Native Status
L48 (I)AK (I)HI (I)CAN (I)GL (I)
History & Origin
“Savoy Tatsoi emerges from the long tradition of Asian leafy vegetables, a heritage variety that has been preserved and grown across generations. As an heirloom cool-season annual, it represents the kind of crop that seed savers and small-scale growers have maintained because of its reliable performance and willingness to produce harvests before most other spring or fall crops mature. The catalog sources identify it as a preservation-worthy variety, suggesting it has survived in cultivation precisely because gardeners found it worth returning to year after year.”