{"id":2773,"date":"2020-04-10T06:22:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T06:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/?p=2773"},"modified":"2020-04-10T06:22:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T06:22:01","slug":"shungiku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/2020\/04\/10\/shungiku\/","title":{"rendered":"Shungiku"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chrysanthemum coronarium<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/strong>: Shungiku is actually a species of Chrysanthemum (it is sometimes\ncalled Garland Chrysanthemum), though not a very showy one. It is native to the\nMediterranean, where it is known as crown daisy, but it is only commonly used\nfor food in Asia (how it got there must be an interesting story, but I don\u2019t\nknow it). It has a nice aromatic, almost floral flavor that goes great in\nsalads. You don\u2019t need a lot of plants as it is quite strongly flavored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate<\/strong>: In its\nnative Mediterranean shungiku is a late winter \/ spring flower. It grows best\nat a mild temperature of 60 – 70\u00b0F. Hotter temperatures usually cause it to\nbolt fairly quickly. It will tolerate light frost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nutritional value<\/strong>: Like most leafy greens it is high in vitamins, including A, B1,\nB2, B6, C, K and folate. It is also rich in minerals including calcium,\nphosphorus and potassium, as well as various beneficial antioxidants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ease of growing:<\/strong> Shungiku isn\u2019t a very demanding plant and is pretty easy to grow.\nThe only problems I have had is with its unseemly haste to flower when the\nweather warms up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soil<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

pH: 5.2 \u2013 7.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This weed-like annual does well in most soil types, but (as usual)\nit gets bigger and more succulent in rich, well-drained, moisture retentive\nsoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Planning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When<\/strong>: Shungiku prefers cool weather and in most of the U.S. it must be\ngrown as a spring or fall crop. In cooler areas it can be grown all summer too.\nIn areas with mild winters it is commonly planted in fall as a winter salad\ngreen. In less mild areas it can be grown under cold frames or in tunnels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where<\/strong>: Shungiku will be most productive in full sun, but in warmer\nclimates it will benefit from light shade during the hottest part of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About shungiku<\/strong> \u00a0
Germ temp: 60 – 70\u00b0F
Days to germinate: 7 – 21
Days to harvest: 30 – 50
Direct sow
Spring: 2 wks before last frost
Fall: 8 – 10 wks before first frost \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 Planting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transplants<\/strong>: Shungiku isn\u2019t usually started indoors because it is quite hardy\nand germinates well in cool soil, but it is easy enough to do. It doesn\u2019t mind\ntransplanting so you can use\nflats or cell packs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direct sowing<\/strong>: Plant the seed \u00bc – \u00bd\u02dd deep and 1 – 2\u02dd apart, to be thinned to\nthe desired spacing later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spacing<\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beds<\/strong>: When growing in beds space the plants 4 – 6\u02dd apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rows<\/strong>: If you want to grow in rows space the plants 3 – 6\u02dd apart, in\nrows 12 – 20\u02dd apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Succession sowing<\/strong>: The plants aren\u2019t very long lived, so you may want to plant\nevery 3 – 4 weeks to ensure\na continuous supply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Care<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watering<\/strong>: Keep the soil evenly moist for best growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeds<\/strong>: Shungiku doesn\u2019t compete with weeds very well, so keep it well\nweeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeding<\/strong>: Plants may benefit from an occasional foliar feed to keep them\ngrowing rapidly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frost protection<\/strong>: Shungiku tolerates light frost, but will need protection from\nharder ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pests and disease<\/strong>: I can\u2019t remember ever having a problem with it. In fact the\nplants attract beneficial\ninsects to the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvesting<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can harvest thin whole plants until you get to the final\nspacing and then start picking leaves individually (take single leaves from a\nnumber of plants and they won\u2019t even notice). Gathering regularly may delay\nflowering. Pinch out any flower shoots as they appear (they are edible too, so\ndon\u2019t just throw them away). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also harvest by cutting off the entire top of the plant,\nleaving a couple of inches of stem to regenerate. It should re-grow a couple of\ntimes before it will need replacing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seed saving<\/strong>: Shungiku produces seed readily if allowed to flower (somewhat\ntoo readily actually). You probably don\u2019t have to worry about keeping a variety\npure because there are so few of them. Just cut the ripe seed heads and dry\nthem in a paper bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unusual growing ideas<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ornamental<\/strong>: This species is occasionally grown in the ornamental garden for\nits small, daisy-like yellow\nflowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Varieties<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shungiku is sometimes sold under the name chop suey greens,\ngarland chrysanthemum and tong ho (its Chinese name). There aren\u2019t many\nvarieties and usually you see the fern leafed type, which closely resembles the\nwild plant. However there is also a broad leafed type too, which is said to be\nsomewhat more\nrefined and better flavored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kitchen use<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This species adds an interesting flavor to salads and I like it a\nlot. Apparently it has also been cooked as a potherb or braised, but I haven\u2019t\ntried this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The edible flower petals (not the whole flower) can be added to\nsalads. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chrysanthemum coronarium Introduction: Shungiku is actually a species of Chrysanthemum (it is sometimes called Garland Chrysanthemum), though not a very showy one. It is native to the Mediterranean, where it … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leaf-veg","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/shungiku.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2773"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2777,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions\/2777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}