Brassicas
Cabbage
Spring and fall crops.
- Indoors
- 6 to 8 wk spring; June for fall
- Outside
- Transplant
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July; a soak after drought splits heads
- Harvest
- 70 to 100 days
Care
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July and August, every 5 to 7 in spring and fall. A long soak at the base until the top few inches are wet, then let it dry before the next. Keep it steady as the heads firm; a heavy soak after a dry stretch splits a ripe one.
- Sow
- In cells in March for spring, again in June for fall: 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, keep the stronger. Set plants a foot to eighteen inches apart in the bed; closer spacing keeps the heads from splitting.
- Start inside
- No heat mat; at room temperature they sprout in 1 to 2 weeks. Under the lights as they break ground, 14 to 16 hours. Harden off and set out in May, the fall round in August; a light frost is fine.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at planting starts the bed. A heavy feeder that wants rich soil to pack a dense head, so side-dress with Garden-tone, up to a third cup a plant, once the plant is four inches tall.
- Ready
- Cut when the head feels solid and firm to a squeeze. It holds in the garden for weeks; a ready head twisted a quarter turn slows down until you can use it.
- Trouble
- Split head: a downpour after a dry spell, keep water even and give ripe heads a quarter turn. Cabbageworms boring past the wrapper leaves: net at transplant, since no spray follows them in.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in July and August; bags dry far faster than a bed. 30 to 40 sec on the shower dial until it runs from the seams.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- One plant per bag.
Spring cabbage arrives in time for July slaw, and the fall planting grows the dense heads the kraut crock wants. Heads hold in the garden for weeks once ready, which forgives an unhurried kitchen.
Growing
Indoors six to eight weeks ahead in March, into the garden in May, heads by July: that is the spring set. The fall round starts in June, transplants out in August, and matures in September and October tasting better for the cold. In a bed give them eighteen inches or the heads stay small; one fills a 5 to 7 gal bag. Keep water even as heads firm up, because a heavy rain after a dry spell is how cabbage splits. If a head is ready before the kitchen is, twist the plant a quarter turn to snap some roots and stall it.
Varieties
Early Jersey Wakefield is the pointed spring classic; Storage No. 4 holds the fall and cellar end; Red Express fits neatly in a bag.
Pests
Cabbage hides its pest damage in plain sight: the loose wrapper leaves absorb most of the chewing and peel away at harvest, and the head underneath is usually flawless. What the wrappers cannot stop is a worm boring inward, and no spray follows it there, which makes this the bed where a transplant-day net earns its keep most. Slugs treat the same wrapper leaves as a rain shelter; they leave with the leaves.
In the kitchen
Slaw and quick kraut from the spring heads. The dense fall heads go to fermented kraut in the crock and braises with sausage.