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Cabbages  (Brassica oleracea var. capitata)

GROWING SUMMARY​

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  • Onions are frost hardy and germinate best between

  • Timing:  

  • Direct Seeding

  • Growing Seedlings
    Germination temperature

  • Bed Preparation
    Raised beds
    On the flat

  • Plant Spacing
    Germination temperature

  • Irrigation
    Germination temperature

  • Pests and Diseases
    Germination temperature

  • Harvesting
    November – January depending on variety & location

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GROWING SUMMARY​

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  • Cabbages are a cool weather vegetable but we like to eat them all year round. In the summer we enjoy them raw in coleslaw, a salad. In winter we cook them in many different ways. Mix them with a little salt and let them ferment and you have sauerkraut. 

  • Like all the large brassicas cabbages needs rich, well fertilised soil and plenty of space. 300-500mm between the plants. The pH needs to be about 6.5 so add lime or dolomite if your soil is acid.

  • Timing is crucial for the winter giants like savoys and red cabbages. It cannot be emphasised enough, in cool climates and even in warm temperate climates, vegetables don't grow much in winter. The winter garden is simply a storage space. The frost hardy vegetables don't die they sweeten up and growth slows to snail pace. The trick is to get them to almost harvest size before the first frost. This means planting them in Novemer/December and transplanting them in January (not an easy time of year here in Australia). 

  • The smaller ball heads and hybrid sugarloaf varieties are much more flexible and do well year round but don't try planting them in winter they will simply run to seed in the spring without forming a head.

  • Harvest when the heads are plump and hard. There is also a subtle colour change when they are ready to be picked - they tend to become paler.

  • Fully formed cabbages will hold well in cold weather but will expand and split if there is a lot of rain and will run to seed in spring and summer. 

  • Cabbage moths and butterflies are a problem in summer but can be easily controlled organically with Dipel (Bacillus thuringiensis) or by using some sort of exclusion netting.
    Aphids can also be a problem in the cooler weather

VARIETIES​

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​Extend your season by choosing a mix of fast growing, modern F1 hybrids and old fashioned heirlooms. 

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  • Ball heads - there are lots to choose from. Fast growing hybrids and slower growing winter heirlooms.

  • Sugarloaf/conical - small, quick growing, versitile varieties. Ideal for summer harvest.

  • Savoy - large, tight, curly leafed varieties grown for winter harvest. Sweet and tender. Must be planted November/December.

  • Red - no matter what the variety the red cabbages do best grown at the same time as savoys for a winter harvest.

MORE INFORMATION

 

Timing

Timing is absolutely crucial with cabbages. All the cabbage family vegetables are biennial, they produce flowers in the second year of their grow. In practice this means that no matter when it was planted a cabbage family vegetable runs to seed in early spring.

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Pest Control

The worst pest of Cabbages is the cabbage white butterflies (and moths) that hover around the plants all summer.  

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You must be vigilant in the warmer months. If you see even one white butterfly there will be eggs and caterpillars. The eggs are easy to spot, they are small, round and yellow and you will find them on the underside of the leaves. If you only have a few plants it is easy to squash the eggs off with your thumb.  The best solution is to check all your seedlings for eggs when you plant them then put some sort of insect exclusion cover over the top of the plants. If the butterflies can't get on the leaves they can't lay eggs. Another great biological control is Dipel, a bacterial poison specific to caterpillars and which will not harm all the wonderful beneficial insects. 

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As the weather starts to cool in autumn aphids can become a real problem. Spray with white oil and or pyrethrum to stay on top of these small leaf sucking insects.

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Weed Management 

​​Because of the wide plant spacing cabbages are easy to hoe when they are small. They are also great candidates for heavy mulching. When using mulch be vigilant with slug control because slugs love young Brassica plants.

 

Once the plants are well established weed problems disappear. The large shady leaves protect the soil and when the outer leaves die off they put small amounts of germination suppressant chemicals into the soil. 

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