CHINESE CONTAINER GARDENS - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 196

Chinese Cabbage, page 86
Brassica rapa Pekinensis Group
Since Chinese cabbage takes up less room than the common cabbage, you can grow it
in a much smaller container. Ordinary cabbage needs 20 inches between plants, Chinese
types need only 12; tall, slender varieties need even less. Use a 10- to 12-inch pot for
the chunky napa types; an 8-inch pot will hold the more slender varieties. Sow seeds in
place ½ inch deep in midsummer for fall eating. Thin to the recommended spacing for
your particular variety.
Feed with half-strength fertilizer every couple of weeks and water copiously.
Cabbages grow best outdoors. Chinese mustards are a much better bet for indoor
container gardens.
Hot Pepper, page 124
Capsicum frutescens
I don't know why “ornamental” peppers are such a popular house plant when the real
thing is just as pretty and produces quantities of edible peppers. Hot peppers are orna-
mental at all stages of growth. The leaves are a glossy dark green, the white flowers
with their yellow centers are delightful, and the peppers are colorful. The peppers go on
being decorative if you dry them on strings to hang in the kitchen.
Sow seeds ¼ inch deep. Start your peppers in seed trays for transplanting or seed
directly in 10- to 12-inch pots or larger containers. In a window box, space the plants
about 18 inches apart. You can always prune them back if they get out of hand. In a
large container, combine with greens and herbs for a handsome display. With flowers
and fruits at the same time, peppers in outdoor containers stay decorative right through
the summer. If a plant wears itself out, discard it and start a new one.
Indoors they grow all year-round. One plant indoors will surely be enough, espe-
cially since hot peppers require as much full sun as possible, and supplemental lighting
won't do much for setting fruit if you skimp on direct sun.
Feed once a month, or use quarter-strength liquid fertilizer every week.