Ornamental Cabbage: Varieties, Agricultural Technology, Pests

Features of growing ornamental cabbage

In late autumn, after the first frost, when there are no more greenery in the garden and the last flowers have bloomed, ornamental cabbage looks like a huge flower on the bare, dull ground.

This amazing plant is one of the few that frost does not destroy, but only decorates. Under the influence of cold, the leaves of ornamental cabbage begin to turn into all sorts of colors: from dazzling white to cherry red, from pale cream to burgundy purple.

At the same time, ornamental cabbage is not only an excellent decoration for a garden plot, but also quite suitable for eating. Its young, delicate leaves are rich in valuable organic acids, minerals, and biologically active substances.

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Seedlings are grown in heated greenhouses or under a synthetic film, where the temperature should be 18 … 20 ° C degrees. Cabbage is sown in the last decade of March on a layer of soil 10-12 cm (two parts of sod land and part of humus or equal parts of sod, humus and peat) in rows at a distance of 6 cm and to a depth of 1-1.5 cm. Before sowing, in order to prevent diseases, the earth in the boxes is spilled with a 1% solution of potassium permanganate, which simultaneously serves as a necessary trace element in the process of plant nutrition. After sowing, water is rarely watered, but abundantly.

In Russia, seedlings of garden crops have long been planted on a strictly defined day - on Arina-nursery, according to the calendar, it falls on May 18 according to the new style. Although the climate has changed slightly since then, mid-to-late May is still the time to plant seedlings in the beds. Plant seedlings with a lump of earth, immersing the plants in the soil up to the cotyledonous leaves, but so as not to cover the growing point with earth.

The distance between plants in a row is about 30 cm, between rows is 50-70 cm. Ornamental cabbage is unpretentious in care, but it is better to plant it on good garden soil, fertilized with humus. And despite the fact that ornamental cabbage loves frost, it prefers to grow in the sunniest place.

It is very important to protect cabbage from pests, the main of which are cabbage white and cruciferous flea. Cabbage White - a cute butterfly with white wings is not dangerous in itself, but its caterpillars, which feed on the pulp of cabbage leaves, are dangerous. Butterflies fly out in May, are active during the day, mainly in sunny weather. Females lay heaps of bright yellow eggs on the underside of plant leaves.

After 8-12 days, caterpillars emerge from them, which gnaw the pulp from the underside of the leaf. Caterpillar 45 mm long, gray-green, with black spots and yellowish stripes along the body, pupates after 15-20 days. If you have only a few plants growing, then you can deal with whitewash manually, collecting eggs and caterpillars, or by chemical treatment of cabbage.

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Another equally common and dangerous pest of all cabbage crops is the cruciferous flea - black, blue or green beetles with a metallic sheen measuring only 2-3 mm. In early spring, they get out of the upper layer of the earth to the surface and move to cabbage shoots, in which they eat up small holes, which can cause weak plants to die.

Cruciferous fleas lay eggs in the soil, from which larvae emerge, damaging the plant roots. The second generation of beetles appears from the larvae in the middle of summer. You can protect plantings from fleas, first of all, by feeding them to enhance the growth and development of young plants; you can also dust the cabbage with wood ash every morning before it gets stronger.

In addition, if you have small plantings of cabbage, you can collect the beetles either in a matchbox, which you then burn, or in a bucket of water with a thin layer of kerosene.

In autumn, in late October - early November, several healthy ornamental cabbage plants can be dug up by the roots, transplanted into pots and grown at home, using fresh herbs to decorate the table in winter. But you don't have to dig out the cabbage from the garden, but only cover it when the temperature drops to -10 degrees. Certain varieties of ornamental cabbage have exceptional cold resistance, withstanding -20 ° C.

There are now many varieties of ornamental cabbage. They differ in the shape of the plant, the color of the leaves (green, yellow, white, pink, red and purple); the form of a leaf outlet. Leaves can be round, flat, curly, lyre-pinnate, sparsely cut, with varying degrees of corrugation.

Decorative varieties: Sparkle, Colors of the East, Robin, Autumn waltz, Palmyra, Relay. Japanese cabbage Little Mermaid. Leaf hybrids - Redbor and Reflex. The Mosbakhskaya variety of ornamental cabbage with curly leaves painted in a juicy light green color looks very beautiful.

Breeders of Japan have achieved the greatest success in developing new varieties of ornamental cabbage. It is from there that most of the usual varieties of cabbage and the latest novelties come from. Japanese varieties of ornamental cabbage: Maruba Shirousagi, Maruba Aka, Maruba Akausagi.

Ornamental cabbage is multifaceted and interesting, the variety of its varieties will allow you to decorate any garden plot, and until the very frosts you can admire the lacy dress of unusual cabbage.