Planting Cabbage

Last year’s cabbage crop was a good success.  This year could be even better with a minor change in my process.

Years ago, I struggled with cabbage root maggot. Cauliflower was the most susceptible.  The mid-sized crop was growing nicely but any amount of sun would suddenly wilt the leaves as if the plants were in water stress.  Pulling up the sad plants showed roots eaten away by white maggots.  

The next year I tried the recommended wood ashes stirred around the planting holes but that didn’t really help.  Finally, I learned that some kind of barrier on top of the root area solved most of that.  First I tried tar paper circles with a slit cut to the centre but later found that black plastic bed cover would be both a bug and a total weed barrier. 

Eventually I kept one 5 by 12.5 foot piece of black plastic specifically for my cabbage family bed.  The holes for the plants were actually slits or crosses cut into the plastic at the right places.  Using 24 inch square centres between the plants resulted in wonderful large cabbages averaging 7 lbs each.  The cabbages stored well in my garage until mid-April.  My only concern last year was that my hand watering through the slits wasn’t reaching all of my sandy soil and I feared dry areas under the plastic.

This year I changed my plastic and raking prep slightly.  I laid out my pre sliced plastic sheet over the flat raked bed and when it was in the exact right spot I stuck small sticks into the centres of each planting spot.  Then I removed the plastic and raked lightly with the back of the rake drawing a bit of soil away from the planting spots.  That left me with two very gentle troughs down the bed spaced 2 feet apart.  The water would run towards the plant’s roots.  Next, I made a smaller trough down the centre of the bed.

The plastic was relayed onto the bed and the small sticks removed and I transplanted the cabbages through the cross slits into the main pair of troughs.  The minor centre trough was held down with medium sized stones and under or in line with each stone I sliced another slit.  This will allow more water to reach the centre of the bed.  The perimeter of the black plastic is anchored with my 8 inch long staples, homemade from coat hanger wire.

The 50 square foot bed had been enriched the week before with 1.5 lbs of lime and 1.75 lbs of Rock Phosphate.  This was tilled / stirred in.  There was no need for added nitrogen from seed meals because my two chickens had been in that bed for a few months during the winter.

This year I planted seven Storage #4 F-1 cabbages from Johnny’s Seeds that were seeded in flats indoors on March 23^rd and transplanted into pots a month later.  I also included one almost Broccoli plant called Happy Rich.  It is technically not quite a true heading broccoli but rather puts out side shoots for a longer season, as long as you keep cutting the side shoots.

Each plant was given a small stick slid down diagonally between the leaves and stem to avoid the roots but to stabilize the plant from shaking in the wind in this early transplanted stage.  I also mixed a gallon of fish fertilizer to water in the transplants and give them that extra starting boost.  The far end of the bed has room for a zucchini squash plant that will be installed in a week or less.

This raking and black plastic all sounds like a lot of work for 7 or 8 cabbages but there’s no weeding to do.  Now I just water and watch them grow and possibly go after cabbage butterfly caterpillars or maybe the odd slug if damage is sighted.

Happy Gardening.