Annual Leafy Green · 2 varieties

Tatsoi

Brassica rapa (Narinosa group)

Brassicaceae — the same plant family as cabbage, radish, broccoli, cauliflower and 12 more here. Relatives share pests and diseases, which is why rotation plans group by family.

Tatsoi (Brassica rapa (Narinosa group)) is an annual leafy green. It wants full sun and pH 6–7.5 soil, with about 1 in of water weekly. It matures in about 25–45 days from sowing, or 21–30 days from setting out a transplant. Watch for flea beetles and black rot. Below: its full sourced profile from 5 extension sources, plus a planting calendar timed to your frost dates.

Sun Full sun
Water Moderate
Matures 21–30 days — from transplantest from transplant
Mature size 6–12 in
Spacing 6–16 in
Soil pH 6–7.5
Frost Hardy
When to plant tatsoitypical · zone 6b
Your zone
…or your ZIP, for your real frost dates

Germinating
Seedlings
Growing
Harvest
Flowering

Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP for yours. This calendar assumes the crop is started indoors. Timing is a guide from the crop's sourced growth stages; confirm with your local frost dates and extension before you sow.

Growing tatsoievery fact says where it came from

What we will not put a number on

We do not give a feeding rate for this crop, and that is deliberate rather than a gap. The figures published by extension services are pounds of nitrogen per acre for a production field — they do not convert safely to a raised bed or a pot without knowing your soil test and your fertilizer's analysis, and guessing errs toward burning roots. It is also why every chart you find online disagrees with the next one.

We give watering as a depth per week rather than gallons per plant, because that is how it is actually measured and how the published figures are written. A gallons-per-plant number depends on your spacing, your soil and whether the plant is in a pot — so it would look more precise than it is.

Site & soil

Sun
Full sun
Soil pH
6–7.5
Soil texture
Well drained
Frost tolerance
Hardy

No published figure for the temperature frost starts to hurt it, the temperature that would kill it and a heat limit. We looked — where a number is missing here it is missing from the research, not skipped. The crop’s frost and heat tolerance above still applies.

The plant

Mature height
6–12 in
Mature spread
8–18 in
Growth rate
Fastest
Spacing in row
6–16 in
Between rows
12–18 in
Planting depth
0.25–0.5 in
Container size
1 galest
Support
Self-supportingest
Grown from
Direct sow, Transplant

Water & feeding

Water needs
Moderate
Water per week
1 in/wkest
Critical water
Germinationest
Feeding
Moderate

Timing & fruiting

Days to maturity
25–45 days from seed · 21–30 days from transplantest
Harvest cues
Rapid leaf growth

Planted again for autumn

Set plants out by
late Sep typical · zone 6b

21 days to maturity from setting a plant out — that is what our sources measure for this crop, so this is a date for planting out and not a sowing date, counted back from the first frost above. Not published for anywhere in particular: it is your own frost date and this crop's own figure, which is why it works wherever you are. A days-to-maturity figure is a catalog number for a good season rather than a promise, and a cold month moves it.

Edible parts per source: leaf, stem.

What tends to go wrongmost-cited first
PestsFlea beetlesAphidsImported cabbagewormCabbage looperHarlequin bugCutwormsSlugs
DiseasesBlack rotWire stemDowny mildewAlternaria leaf spot

Compiled from the extensions cited below. Which ones actually show up depends on your region — your extension's local list is the last word.

All 2 varietiesthe ones with their own page are linked
Variety TypeHabit DaysColorWhat it is known for
Savoy Spreading 45 Green True Leaf Market describes this astakes the cold
Yukina Savoy Yukina Savoy 25–45 Green True Leaf Market describes this astakes the cold
Sources5 cited · 5 organizations
  • Clemson Cooperative Extension HGIC
  • Johnny's Selected Seeds
  • Missouri Botanical Garden
  • Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (Henderson County Master Gardeners)
  • UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County (UC ANR)

We compile bare facts from these university-extension and horticultural sources, never copied prose. 13 of the 19 values on this page carry a citation. The rest are marked est; hover one and it says why — either nobody publishes a figure we could point at, or a person set it and attached no source. Figures vary with climate and seed source; confirm with your local extension before you buy.

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