Price range: £2.25 through £19.00
Dark green and maroon leaves which are highly serrated and have a sweet and mustardy flavour. Great for salad or stir-fry.
Scroll down for more info.
Ruby Streaks
Latin name Brassica juncea
Approximately 450 seeds per g
Oriental vegetables have revolutionised winter salad production. As their name suggests they come from China and Japan. Being brassica, or cabbage family, the plants are very cold tolerant making them ideal for our autumn and winter months. It also means that some of the varieties have that hot, mustard kick to them. The variation in leaf, colour, shape and texture make them perfect for mixed salad and they are very quick growing too. Most varieties are cut and come again salads while some can also be stir fried.
Ruby streaks is a really attractive oriental salad leaf. The mixture of green and purple in the leaf ranges from a small splash of colour, through variegation to a nearly full purple. Like other coloured orientals the colder the temperature the more vibrant the colouring. The leaves are heavily serrated and the flavour is sweet and spicy. The leaves get hotter as the plant matures.
How to grow:
Sow May until September in open ground. Prepare the soil and sprinkle the seeds over or grow in drills. Thin as necessary. You can use the thinnings in salad or as garnish. Plants may bolt in very hot weather so you may need to avoid mid summer sowings. Later sowings can be grown undercover.
Harvest young leaves three to four weeks after planting and cut larger leaves frequently as required.
Pests and diseases:
Protect the plants from slugs with an environmentally friendly method. Flea beetle may also be a problem. You can protect the plants from flea beetle using fine mesh.
How to cook:
Ruby streaks is best picked young as a salad but it can be used in stir fries. Like purple frills, golden frills, and scarlet frills, ruby streaks makes a great mix leaf salad and is popular amongst professional growers for salad packs.