Perennial Vegetable in Zone 5 – Chinese Toon AKA Xiang Chun, 香椿

Click here to order free seeds w/ free shipping on our website. Click here to order seeds for planting in our Amazon Store.

Chinese toon is a vegetable that require less work, come back in the garden every year. If you miss the Chinese toon taste, you got to grow one in your yard.

Grow Chinese toon is so easy low maintenance. The problem is where do you get one. If you are lucky, you might get a small tree at local Asian grocery store or from a friend. If not, you can start from seeds. I was desperate to find tree/seeds several years ago and finally found one at our local store. I like it so much so decided to share the good thing. Click here to order 5 free Chinese toon seeds with free shipping. Toon seeds normally won’t germinate in next year so if you don’t plan to use it in 2022, please don’t order it now.

Here is a youtube video showing how to grow Chinese toon from seed. 

Here is a youtube video showing how to harvest tender leaves. It can be harvested all summer.

Plant the young tree in the sunny spot in spring. In first year, provide water to newly planted trees, keeping them stress-free, especially during periods of dry weather. Don’t water so much that they come to rely on you, but enough to encourage them to go in search of more.

An important maintenance is to keep the tree short so you don’t have to use a ladder to harvest leaves. Just cut it back to 4′ tall every fall after the leaves fall off. Here’s a picture from one of my friends, the new growth are from the trimmed spots, ready to be harvested.

In my own backyard, I don’t even have to cut it short every fall. Deer roam in the winter and destroy the tree back to ground. The new growth are from roots not the branches. I bought two one year old tree in 2017.

Here they are in summer 2021. Only about 3′ tall.

Another way to use Chinese toon is grow microgreen. Here is the tutorial. Order Chinese toon seeds here in our amazon store.