Growing Mizuna: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · July 25, 2026
Mizuna is a feathery-leaved Japanese mustard green prized for its mild, slightly peppery flavor and quick turnaround, one of the fastest crops you can put in a salad-garden bed.
Sowing on repeat
Direct-sow seed 1/4 inch deep from early spring through midsummer. Harvest as baby leaf in as little as 18 days, or let it size up for a full head at around 40 days. It’s cold-tolerant, so it also works well as a late-summer sowing for a fall harvest, and can overwinter under a low tunnel in milder climates.
Beating the bolt
Like most fast-growing brassica greens, mizuna bolts quickly once summer heat arrives. Treat it as a spring and fall crop rather than a summer one. Flea beetles are its main pest; row cover from the moment seedlings emerge is the most reliable fix.
A salad-bed partner
Mizuna is a natural cut-and-come-again partner for arugula and lettuce in a salad bed. All three share light, fast-turnaround growing needs, and mizuna’s frilly texture adds visual contrast to a mixed-greens harvest.
Sources: Mizuna (Organic), Johnny’s Selected Seeds; Red Streaks Mizuna, True Leaf Market.
Companion planting guide for Mizuna · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 0.5-1 ft
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. It doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
When to plant mizuna, by zone
Every zone mizuna grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2a & 2b | Not usually | Apr 29–May 6 | Jun 8–Jun 15 |
| 3a & 3b | Not usually | May 9–May 16 | Jun 18–Jun 25 |
| 4a & 4b | Not usually | Apr 24–May 1 | Jun 3–Jun 10 |
| 5a & 5b | Not usually | Apr 19–Apr 26 | May 29–Jun 5 |
| 6a & 6b | Not usually | Apr 4–Apr 11 | May 14–May 21 |
| 7a & 7b | Not usually | Mar 20–Mar 27 | Apr 29–May 6 |
| 8a & 8b | Not usually | Mar 4–Mar 11 | Apr 13–Apr 20 |
| 9a & 9b | Not usually | Jan 25–Feb 1 | Mar 6–Mar 13 |
| 10a & 10b | Not usually | Jan 9–Jan 16 | Feb 18–Feb 25 |
| 11a & 11b | Not usually | Dec 11–Dec 18 | Jan 20–Jan 27 |
Harvest dates are about 40 days after the sow or plant-out date.
Zone 2 sows before zone 3 here, which looks wrong and is not. USDA zones rank winter cold, not season length, and zone 2 is mostly interior Alaska, where hard winters come with warm summers. More on what a zone measures.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Mizuna plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 9 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 0.5-1 ft.
Good companions for mizuna
- Radish: Radish (including the daikon form) is a documented trap crop for flea beetles, which prefer its mustard oils over other brassicas and can be sacrificed or pulled once infested: the same research cited on the radish page.
Full companion guide, including what to keep away from mizuna →
Varieties worth considering
- 'Red Streaks' (Brassica rapa var. nipposinica): True Leaf Market's Kitazawa-line 'Red Streaks' holds up to heat and bolts later than lettuce, useful if you want mizuna past its usual spring window. It runs a little slower than a plain green strain (45 days versus 40) and the burgundy streaking is a good way to spot it in a mixed salad tray, not just a color trick. (source) Buy seeds: True Leaf Market
- 'Early' (Kyona) mizuna: True Leaf Market's Kyona strain matures faster than Red Streaks, in 45 days against 45-plus for the colored type, with plain dark green, long slender stems. It's the plainer, quicker choice if you want a fast cut-and-come-again green rather than the visual contrast Red Streaks adds to a mixed tray. (source) Buy seeds: True Leaf Market
- 'Waido': BBC Gardeners' World describes 'Waido' as bearing broader leaves than most mizuna, with a stronger flavor than the milder standard types. Worth choosing if you want mizuna's peppery bite to come through clearly in a salad rather than get lost among other greens. (source)
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy mizuna seeds
True Leaf Market (each supplier's mizuna seeds)
The varieties we recommend above each have their own buy links, for the suppliers that sell that exact variety.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing mizuna" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Mizuna: A fast, cold-tolerant Japanese salad green that's ready to cut in as little as three weeks.
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