Vegetable Gardening: Growing Organic Cabbage
Cabbage, a.k.a. head cabbage, is a long standing food staple of the world. The dense, compacted leaves form "heads" which store very well. Combined with the fact it is so widely grown makes cabbage a very economical vegetable.
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Types of Cabbage for Growing in Your Vegetable Garden:
Cabbage can be green or red and come in dwarf varieties that can be grown in container gardens
- Savoy Cabbage: With it's curly, lacy leaves, this cabbage is very pretty. It's leaves are not as densely packed as the head cabbage.
- Green Cabbage: These round, heavy heads of cabbage are what most of us are familiar with. Excellent storage capability.
- Red Cabbage: Looks just like a green cabbage except it's...well.. red. Red cabbage usually has much smaller heads than green cabbage and are not bothered by the cabbage caterpillars.
- Gonzales' Cabbage Variety: This compact plant produces small heads(4-6 inch), making it an ideal variety for container gardening.
Cabbage Planting
For summer harvesting, start your cabbage seeds 4-6 weeks before the last frost.
For summer harvesting, start your cabbage seeds 4-6 weeks before the last frost.
- Sow the seeds 1/2 inch deep, with 2-3 seeds per hill. Keep the seeds starters at 75 degrees for best germination.
- When seedlings emerge, thin to one seedling and keep the seedlings at a lower temperature (about 60 degrees). Keep them there until time to transplant.
- Transplant your cabbage seedlings into your garden, spaced about 8 inches apart.
Black Castings™ and VermaPlex® Applications for Cabbage
- Mix in the pure worm castings into your garden soil at a rate of 1 pound per 50 square feet.
- At planting, apply VermaPlex® at a rate of 40:1 (40 parts water to 1 part VermaPlex®)
- At 4-6 true leaf stage, apply VermaPlex® at a rate of 20:1, and again in 12-14 days.
- At head initiation, apply Vermaplex at a rate of 20:1.
"VermaPlex® can be applied as a drench or as a foliar spray"