How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Mizuna

Mizuna is an Asian leafy green well suited for salads or salad mixes such as mesclun. Mizuna can also be used in stir-fries and soups and added to other dishes at the end of cooking. Mizuna is similar to mustard greens though milder flavored—a bit peppery, tangy, and with a light cabbage flavor.

Mizuna is best grown in cool weather, but unlike many leafy greens, it is slow to bolt in hot weather. Sow mizuna in the garden in spring as soon as the soil can be worked. It will germinate in the soil as chilly as 40°F (4°C). It can be started indoors early for transplanting out mid-spring just before the last frost. Also, grow mizuna in the garden in the fall and in a plastic tunnel or cold frame for harvest through the winter.

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Here is your complete guide to growing mizuna:

Table of Contents

Where to plant mizuna

Plant mizuna in full sun.
Plant mizuna in humus-rich, well-drained soil. Add aged compost to the planting area before planting.

When to plant mizuna

Mizuna grows best in cool weather.
Sow seed or set out transplants in mid-to late spring for harvest before the weather turns hot in summer.
Sow mizuna seed every three weeks for a succession of harvests; mizuna grows from seed to maturity in 40 days.
Plant mizuna again near the end of summer for harvest in the cool weather of autumn and early winter.
Mizuna can tolerate frost near maturity.
Grow mizuna through winter in a plastic tunnel or cold frame.

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Planting and spacing mizuna

Sow mizuna seed ¼ to ½ inch (6-13 mm) deep.
Space mizuna 8 to 10 inches (20-25 cm) apart if you are growing plants for a harvest of leaves cut and come again.
If you are sowing mizuna to be harvested as a microgreen then you can broadcast seed and thin small plants for eating and let others grow to maturity. Microgreens can grow as close as 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart.
Mizuna is a good choice for interplanting in the shade of slower-maturing crops.
Mizuna yield: Three or four plants will provide plenty of cut-and-come-again leaves for salads.

Container growing mizuna

Mizuna, like most greens, is easily grown in containers. Choose a container at least 6 inches deep and wide.
Grow mizuna in well-draining potting soil.

Watering and feeding mizuna

Keep the soil evenly moist; not too wet and never completely dry.
During the growing season feed mizuna with dilute fish emulsion especially if you heavily harvest individual plants.

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Mizuna pests and diseases

Flea beetles can attack mizuna; protect plants with row covers. Put row covers in place right after seeding.
To avoid cabbage-family-related diseases, do not plant mizuna after cabbage or other cabbage family crops.

Mizuna harvested — Whole mizuna plants harvested

Harvesting mizuna

Mizuna can be harvested small as a microgreen or you can wait until leaves are 3 to 4 inches (8-10 cm) long. Clip leaves with garden scissors.
Larger mizuna leaves can be harvested, but harvest leaves while they are tender and before they grow a bit tough with age, especially in warm weather. Use older leaves in stir-fries, soups, and cooking.
You can harvest all of the leaves from a single plant about an inch above the soil and the leaves will regrow for a second harvest.

How to Use mizuna in the kitchen

Mizuna can be added to stir-fries and soups.
Mizuna is often an ingredient in the salad mix called mesclun or spring mix; other greens often found in mesclun are arugula, dandelion, frisée, mâche, radicchio, endive, and sorrel.

Mizuna varieties to grow

Varieties. ‘Kyona Mizuna’: rosettes of thin, deep cut, feathery, fringed leaves, mild flavor; ‘Purple Mizuna’: green leaves with purple margins.

About mizuna

Botanical name. Brassica rapa var. juncea; Mizuna is a member of the cabbage family, Cruciferae.
Origin. China; mizuna has been grown in Japan for centuries and is also called kyona-greens, named after Kyoto, the ancient Japanese capital.

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