Asian Vegetable Rouge Metis
A striking Asian leafy green — deep red, finely cut and showy leaves that grow year-round in Iberia.
About the variety. Rouge Metis is a thin, serrated leaf variety, deep red in colour with contrasting green stems. Its medium mustard flavour brings character to the plate, distinct from milder salad leaves.
Itinerário técnico
Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
Sow direct half a centimetre to one centimetre deep in rows and thin according to whether you want baby salad leaves or full plants. Germination takes three to seven days. For baby leaf sow thickly and cut at eight to ten centimetres; for whole plants thin early, because two crowded plants bolt before they fill out. It is a very fast crop, ideal for successional sowings every two weeks. Late summer and autumn sowings give the best results, because short days prevent bolting.
It wants cool, loose soil rich in organic matter, at a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. Because the cycle is short, what matters is having the soil well prepared and moist from the start. It is a brassica, so it belongs in the same rotation as the cabbages.
It prefers cool weather, between 10 °C and 20 °C. Heat and long days make the plant bolt within days, which is the central problem with late spring sowings. It takes light frost well and is an excellent autumn and winter crop. The Portuguese coast offers close to ideal conditions and allows harvests over much of the year. Inland in Portugal and Spain, concentrate the crop in autumn, winter and early spring, because from June onwards heat and long days push it to bolt and turn bitter. In France it grows easily from spring to autumn, and in Germany the whole summer works because it is rarely too hot. Light shade over the middle of the day extends the harvest in any warm climate.
Because the leaf is the crop, nitrogen matters, but in moderate, slow release form. Mature compost before sowing and one or two waterings with liquid organic feed during growth give tender leaves without building up nitrates. Heavy late feeding makes the leaf brittle, attracts aphids and shortens shelf life after harvest.
Water often and in small amounts, keeping the soil constantly moist. A leaf that goes thirsty turns tough and pungent, and the plant bolts. Morning is the best time, so the leaves dry through the day.
Sown densely, the crop covers the soil itself and keeps weeds well in check. The work is concentrated in the first two or three weeks: hand weed or run a hoe very shallowly between the rows. Avoid disturbing the soil once the canopy closes, so you do not damage roots or bring fresh weed seed to the surface.
Flea beetle, a small jumping beetle, riddles young leaves with round holes in hot dry weather: keep the soil moist and cover with fine mesh from sowing. Cabbage white caterpillars and diamondback moth eat the leaves from within: apply Bacillus thuringiensis while the caterpillars are small and check the underside of the leaves every week. Cabbage root fly lays at the collar and the larva destroys the root: a cardboard or felt collar around the stem stops the egg laying. Grey cabbage aphid forms waxy colonies on the shoots and is dealt with using potassium soap.
Clubroot is the most serious disease: it deforms the roots, the plant wilts, and the fungus persists in the soil for close to twenty years. Prevent it with a four to five year rotation, good drainage and soil that is never acid: if the pH drops below 6.0, lime it back up to the top of the range given for this crop. Alternaria makes dark concentric leaf spots and downy mildew a greyish white bloom on the underside, both favoured by humidity: space the plants well and water at the base. Clear all crop debris at the end and keep it out of the compost heap.
You can pick leaf by leaf from four weeks, taking the outer ones and leaving the centre, or cut the whole plant three centimetres above the ground so it regrows. Pick in the morning while the leaves are still turgid and use them the same day, because they wilt quickly. Do not let the plants go past their best: old leaves turn fibrous and pungent, and the plant bolts soon after. The reference colour is red, and that is what tells you it is ready.
