Brassicas
Cabbage
Fall heads that hold in the bed for weeks.
- Indoors
- 6 to 8 wk (early to mid Jul)
- Outside
- Transplant Sep 1-20
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Daily at set-out; even after, or heads split
- Harvest
- Nov to Jan, heads hold in the bed
Care
- Water
- Daily for the first two weeks in the ground, September heat being hard on fresh transplants, then taper as the rains return. Keep it steady as the heads firm: a heavy soak after a dry stretch splits a ripe one, and the fall beds swing less than summer ones but still swing.
- Sow
- In cells in early to mid July, 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, keep the stronger. Set plants eighteen inches apart, since crowded heads stay small, on the family's September 1 to 20 transplant window.
- Start inside
- No heat mat: warm July soil does the sprouting in days. The bench grows in full sun with shade after 3 p.m., kept moist but not wet, and hardens in place; transplants go out September 1 to 20, a full two months ahead of the first frost.
- Feed
- A heavy feeder that wants rich soil to pack a dense head: compost at transplant, then a side-dress as the October run starts. Nothing through the county's July-August stop-feeding stretch; the bench is indoors before that rule begins to matter.
- Ready
- Cut when the head feels solid and firm to a squeeze. It holds in the garden for weeks in ground that never freezes hard, which forgives an unhurried kitchen; a head ready ahead of the kitchen stalls when you twist the plant a quarter turn.
- Trouble
- Split head: a downpour after a dry spell, so keep water even and give ripe heads the quarter turn. Cabbageworms boring past the wrapper leaves: net at transplant day, since no spray follows them in.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–7 gal bag.
- Water
- Every day or two while the fall run firms the heads, water until it runs from the drainage holes; a dry-then-soaked bag is a split head.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- One plant per bag. The Texas container guide names no cabbage size, so give the head room at 5 to 7 gallons.
Cabbage runs on the family's fall-only script: sown in July, set out in September, heading up into the cool weather spring cannot give it here.
Growing
The cole sheet's own logic: spring plantings get delayed by wet or cold weather, then mature into too-hot weather, so this family plants once. Cells go in early to mid July, the bed September 1 to 20, and heads firm through the cool October and November days. They hold in the garden for weeks afterward in ground that never freezes hard, so the harvest stretches into the winter greens season without hurry. Give them eighteen inches, keep the water even as heads firm, and twist a quarter turn any head that is ready before the kitchen is, snapping some roots to stall it. Storage holding matters more than speed here, which is why the list skews to dense, heavy heads.
Varieties
The cole sheet's Texas list: Early Jersey Wakefield, Golden Acre, Green Boy, Market Prize, Rio Verde, Ruby Ball and Savoy King, with Brisk Green and Jade Pagoda named for Chinese cabbage. No Texas source bills any of them heat tolerant; the fall calendar does that work instead.
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 still makes this the bed where transplant-day netting earns its keep most.
In the kitchen
Slaw for the taco table and a quick kraut from the first heads; the dense winter heads quarter into a pot of caldo or braise with sausage. A cabbage that holds in the bed into January is a weeknight ingredient the garden keeps on standby.