Midwest Vegetable Guide - 2022 - 81

Asian Vegetables - Horticulture
Malabar spinach (Basella alba): This vegetable is not
related to spinach, but has a similar flavor, and can be grown
in the hot summer months. In its native range of Southeast
Asia it grows as a perennial. But it can be seeded as a frostkilled
annual in the midwestern United States. It grows as a
vine, and should be trellised like peas or runner beans.
Pea shoots and leaves (Pisum sativum): Before, during, and
after pod formation on pea plants, young shoots from the
middle and top sections of the plant can be clipped 3 to 4
inches from the growing tip for bunching or bagging.
Sweet potato vines and leaves (Ipomoea batatas): This
vegetable is grown all over the world for its sweet storage
roots. But the leaves are commonly consumed in Asia too.
Harvest the top 10 inches of vines for bunching or bagged
loose leaf.
Cucurbit Vegetables
Bittermelon (Mormodica charantia): This vegetable is native
to India. Like cucumbers and squashes, bittermelon is a
member of the Cucurbit family. It is a warm-season
vegetable. It is usually grown on a trellis system and its fruit
is about the size of a summer squash. The trellis should be 6feet
high and 4 to 6 feet apart. The seeds can be planted
directly in the field or grown as seedlings and then
transplanted to a field spacing of 1-1/2 to 2 feet between
plants and 3 to 5 feet between rows. Bittermelon is harvested
green before there is any color change. Bright orange fruits
are saved for seed collection.
Calabash (Lagenaria siceraria): Also known as snake gourd,
bottle gourd, or opo. This vegetable is grown like winter
squash for the ornamental hard-shelled mature fruit and used
for making food and drink utensils and vessels, and
instruments. In Asia, fruits are also harvested young and
tender for eating, like a summer squash.
Smooth luffa (Luffa cylindrica) and angled luffa (Luffa
acutangula): These vegetables originated in India and were
later taken to China. It is mainly grown for the young squashlike
edible fruits. If left to mature on the plant, both smooth
and angled luffa gourds produce the familiar " luffa sponge "
found in stores, but smooth luffas make a better-quality
sponge. Some of the smooth luffa cultivars are Smooth Boy,
Smooth Beauty, and Southern Winner. Some angled luffa
cultivars are Hybrid Green Glory, Hybrid Asian Pride, Lucky
Boy, and Summer Long. Luffa plants are warm-season
vegetables and need to be trellised.
Winter melon (Benincasa hispida): This vegetable is also
known as ash gourd or wax gourd and is a vegetable native to
Southeast Asia. It is grown like a watermelon and matures
into a large green fruit with a waxy bloom and white flesh.
When mature, it keeps for several months like a hard squash.
The flavor is bland and it is used in soups and other dishes to
absorb flavor of other ingredients, and candied for sweet
chewy dried treats.
Fruiting Vegetables
Asian Eggplants (Solanum melongena): This crop is native
to tropical Asia and very popular in Japan, China, India,
Thailand, and the Philippines. Many varieties are available.
They can be light or dark purple, brown, or green in skin
color; and round and slender in shape. Culture is similar to
standard eggplant.
Legumes
Asparagus (Yardlong) Bean (Chinese Long Bean, Vigna
sesquipedalis): This long, trailing vine should be grown on
trellises. This plant is more closely related to Southern peas
(cowpeas, black-eyed peas) than to the common green snap
bean, but it vines like a pole bean, and needs support to make
long straight bean pods. Dark and light green varieties are
available as well as a red type. The darker varieties are
generally preferred. It is a warm-season vegetable. Yardlong
beans are cut into 2-inch pieces and added to various stir
fries. The paler green is sweeter and more tender than the
dark green.
Edamame (Glycine max): This vegetable is the immature
pod of a soybean plant. These can be grown like soybeans,
but with a larger between-row spacing like a bush bean, for
easier hand-harvesting. They are harvested 35 to 40 days after
flowering when pods are plump, bright green, and succulent.
Popular varieties include Envy, Butterbeans, Sayamusume,
Shiromufi, Tohya, Midori Giant, and Chiba Green.
Sugar Snap Pea and Snow Pea (Pisum sativum): These
cool-season vegetables should be sowed in April for a spring
crop or sowed in July for a fall crop. Plants deteriorate
quickly in the heat of summer. The plants of sugar snap pea
and snow pea grow similarly to bush beans. It is often helpful
to grow them on trellises to facilitate picking; however, if
grown for the tender shoot tips, they are usually left
untrellised.
Root and Rhizome Vegetables
Many root vegetables popular in Asia are long-lived
perennial plants that are not suitable for our climate in the
midwestern United States. However, a few can be grown in
the field (sweet potato and daikon radish) and others can be
grown in protected culture (ginger and turmeric).
Daikon Radish (Raphanus sativus, var. longipinnatus) is
also called Chinese radish and is closely related to the
common radish crop. The main planting time for daikon is
spring and fall, but some varieties can be planted almost yearround.
April planting generates spring harvest, and July
planting generates fall harvest. Spacing should be 4 to 6
inches within the rows and 3 feet between rows. To
accommodate the large roots, it is recommended to plant in
high raised beds that are amended with organic matter, such
as compost. At each cultivation, move soil higher and higher
around the roots, as they grow, to prevent greening of the
Midwest Veg Guide 2022
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Midwest Vegetable Guide - 2022

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