VegetableCabbage
Fun Jen Cabbage
Fun Jen is a Taiwanese hybrid pak choi that brings tender, crisp leaves to your garden in just 30-39 days. This semi-spreading variety grows 12-18 inches tall and produces frilly, wrinkled green leaves with smooth white stems that weigh around half a pound at maturity. Hardy across zones 2-10 and suited to both warm and cool seasons, it's a genuinely fast crop that rewards full sun and modest spacing with leaves so tender they're equally at home in a stir-fry or floating in soup.
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
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Highlights
The frilly, wrinkled leaves set this pak choi apart, creating visual interest in both garden and kitchen. At 35 days to harvest, it's one of the quickest Chinese cabbages you can grow, making it excellent for succession planting or filling gaps in your beds. The combination of tender, crisp texture and year-round growing potential in subtropical climates means you can keep harvesting through seasons when other greens bolt or slow.
Common Uses
Fun Jen excels in the wok, where its crisp texture and tender leaves soften beautifully with high heat, absorbing garlic and soy sauce without turning mushy. The entire plant is edible, though the white stems and green leaves are often separated to stagger cooking times. It's equally delicious raw in salads when young, or simmered into broths and soups where its delicate flavor comes through clearly.
Growing Timeline
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Care Instructions
Transplant Outdoors
Transplant seedlings outdoors when they have 2-3 true leaves, spacing them 18 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart. This hybrid grows quickly, so direct sowing is often more practical than transplanting.
Direct Sow
Direct sow seeds outdoors in full sun, thinning to 18-inch spacing once seedlings emerge. Fun Jen germinates reliably in both warm and cool seasons, making it flexible for spring, summer, and fall planting in most zones.
Harvesting
Harvest outer leaves once they reach full size, typically beginning around day 25-30 and continuing to day 39 for full plant maturity. For a complete plant harvest, cut the entire head at soil level once it reaches 12-18 inches tall. The tender, frilly leaves signal peak readiness; harvest in the morning when the plant is most crisp.
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
“Fun Jen emerged from Taiwanese plant breeding as a hybrid pak choi, developed to deliver the frilly leaf characteristics and rapid maturity that Taiwanese growers and home gardeners prized. The variety carries forward a long tradition of pak choi cultivation in East Asia while bringing hybrid vigor and uniform performance to Western gardens.”