Can some one familiar with all the different leafy oriental veges (like cabbage, spinach, choi, mustards, etc) can give a primer on these or point me to a web site that gives more info on taste and textures of these veges. Thanks in advance.

Dave

One thing to keep in mind is that flavors can change with cold weather. Swiss chard, for example, gets a much sweeter taste. Also pay attention to planting times such above advice for fall planting only. Lots of leafy things seem to do better if they grow in cooler weather.

http://www.simplecomfortfood.com/2012/06/11/yu-choy/

It is a cool season vegetable, you can direct sow the seeds.

Are these mostly direct sown?

After nearly 15 years of shopping at oriental stores, I still don't know some of them but I know maybe 80% of them, as I see them.

If you don't know them all, probably you won't need to. Just stick to common Oriental cold crop type vegetables, which 90% of them belong to the cabbage family. Then there are few in the alliums family plus some melons/squash/gourds. I have tried most of them one time or another. But never wanted grow them, as I have very limited use for them. The ones I have grown have been : Choys, Chinese Cabbage, Flat chives, Mustard greens.
JMOs.

BTW, for me in FL it wouldn't head up--too warm here, I suppose.

So, I planted some of the winter leafy stuff, first time doing winter garden. I am in Dallas. Early September, we had a week when night temps dipped down into 60s. After that i planted these things. Since then day temps have been up and down, highs between 80s - 90s, but the night temps have been in high 50s to low 60s.

Over the first 3 weeks of September I planted various kales/collards, spinach, cabbage, mustards, Chinese cabbage, broccolli etc. The only things that germinated were radishes, turnips, beets. Most others did not germinate at all. Thinking that i planted them too deep, I replanted most of them, not so deep this time. Since then, a few things have germinated very sparsely. In 3-4 weeks since germination, none of them have really grown much. Most don't even have the first set of true leaves.

Cause?: Is this temperature related? Or may be this is normal. Should I plant some more seeds when the temps go down or the ones that are already in the ground will germinate then. The first frost will be around Nov 15.

thanks.