Growing White Cabbage Seedlings

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Grow cabbage - the bins will not be empty

There is no greater blessing than to rejoice in one's deeds,

for this is the share of a person …”

Solomon the Wise (950 BC)

According to the research of scientists, cabbage appeared in Russia around the 9th century.

It was brought by the Greco-Roman settlers. We can say that Russia has become a second home for cabbage. By about the 12th century, it was already cultivated almost throughout Russia.

Strong, white heads of cabbage with excellent taste were grown in every farm. Cabbage has become one of the staple foods and preparations for the winter. Most of all, Russians appreciated sauerkraut for its ability to preserve its vitamin, "health-improving" properties in the winter:

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“The lady has settled in the garden,

Dressed in noisy silks.

We prepare tubs for her

And half a bag of coarse salt.”

Turnip and sauerkraut supported the strength of the Russian people until the new harvest. And it is no coincidence that many proverbs, sayings, riddles dedicated to their favorite culture have survived among the people. Here are some of them: “Why fence a garden if you don't plant cabbage?”, “Without cabbage, bellies are empty”,

“Without cabbage, cabbage soup is not thick”,

“Not sewn, not cut, but all in scars;

Without a count of clothes, and all without fasteners …

Vegetable gardens without cabbage. Life has now changed so that gardeners do not need to grow vegetables. But our ancestors did not say in vain: "What an order, a vegetable garden without beds!" And it was not in vain that there was a rule - the hostess in the evening touches the cereal with her hands in order to cook porridge in the morning. By this she transferred her own energy to her household. Science has already proven that water transfers energy, I am sure that they will definitely prove that any seed also transfers everything that happens around it.

And now some refuse to grow their own potatoes, onions, carrots. And including cabbage. They say that it is hard to take home large cabbages, and cauliflower is not so large, you can eat it on the site. There are also collard greens, which are not inferior in terms of the content of biological substances. So it turns out that, for example, in our gardening, white cabbage is grown only by three gardeners, but cauliflower - many.

Why did gardeners and gardeners stop growing cabbage? I think there are several reasons for the failures that gardeners experience when growing this crop. For example, the acidic soil on which they grow seedlings - they did not check the acidity or figured it out by eye - the seedlings died. Again, acidic soil in the beds and non-observance of crop rotation - we got a keel - the most dangerous and harmful fungal disease of the root system of cabbage.

And the gardeners were disappointed, deciding that it was easier to buy heads of cabbage in the supermarket. Although everyone knows that there is nothing tastier than your own cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes and cabbage, of course. I want to tell you about my many years of experience in growing this tasty and healthy vegetable crop.

Basic requirements of a white-headed culture

The optimum growing temperature is + 15 … + 19 ° С, but it also withstands short-term frosts: seedlings - up to -3 … -4 ° С, adult plants - up to -6 … -8 ° С, but if an adult plant falls under long-term frosts (several days in a row), the upper leaves look normal, and the inside ones look steamed. This is very dangerous and harmful for those varieties and hybrids of cabbage that are prepared for long-term storage. If the temperature is above + 25 … + 30 ° C for a long time, then the heads of cabbage will not be tied up at all.

Cabbage seedlings are often grown in a greenhouse. It stretches out there and lays down on the garden bed, it turns out to be fragile - this is also from the high temperature.

Cabbage is a moisture-loving culture … It is not for nothing that the popular saying goes: "Without watering, the cabbage dries." One plant "drinks" up to 10 liters of water per day. Therefore, it is better to place late varieties closer to the reservoir, and early ripening ones, preferably in a high place of the site. If your groundwater is high, then the cabbage leaves turn purple, which means that the plant is suffocating from lack of oxygen, in such a "puddle" phosphorus does not work.

Despite the fact that she is hygrophilous, there should be a measure in everything. For example, in 1998, in our area near Vyborg, it rained almost every day, and so on throughout the season. In those areas where there were no ditches for the drainage of excess moisture, the beds were in the water, it was impossible to walk there, and not just to work. The situation was especially deplorable in those areas where the soil was not dug, but only its upper layers were loosened.

In the lower layers, it thickened, so the water stood. In that rainy year, Igor Shadkhan's Workshop was filming with the participation of VV Farber another film on my site, this time about growing cabbage from sowing to harvesting. Then a cassette with this film came out. After harvesting, we weighed the heads of cabbage and compared their size with the previous year's harvest. Of course, all of them turned out to be one and a half times smaller, and some even two times less.

The rains then did not even allow feeding the plantings, since everything was washed out by the rain. The harvest came out only due to the organic matter introduced in the spring. All cabbages at the beginning of their growth require more nitrogen to build good leaves, but before setting heads and during their formation, they need more phosphorus and potassium.

Cabbage is a very light-loving culture … If planted near a thicket of berry bushes or near a tree, it will not form a good head of cabbage, no matter how you feed it. There will be no harvest on acidic soils. It is believed that the optimal acidity for her is pH 6.5-7.2. Hence, we conclude that the seedlings need a soil that is not sour, and the same in the garden.

Growing cabbage seedlings

Some authors believe that cabbage seedlings cannot be grown in apartment conditions because of the dry air. I have been growing for a long time. I try to create suitable conditions for her by humidifying the air. I close the battery with a wet sheet, moisten the seedlings in the evening - sprinkle with water. The easiest way to grow seedlings is in sod soil. But we don't have one.

For many years I have been using soil from a cucumber greenhouse, there is more or less fertile land, and not sick. Cucumbers grow for one season on three-year compost. In the fall, after picking cucumbers, she prepared soil in a greenhouse and brought it to the city. For 5-6 days after sowing seeds for seedlings, I brought this soil from the loggia so that it thaws, warms up. I added 0.5 liters of ash, 2 tablespoons of superphosphate and the same amount of azophoska to a bucket of soil.

For the last three years I have not brought land from the site to the city - it's already hard. I use the purchased soil of the firm "Fart" - "Living Earth". Nothing needs to be added to this soil.

I don't particularly do the preparation of cabbage seeds. If you have hybrids, then they do not require any processing, but if you are in doubt about something, then the easiest way is to immerse the seeds in hot water at + 50 ° C for 20 minutes. Someone uses a thermos for this, but I would rather pour 3-4 liters of hot water into a saucepan (determine the temperature with a thermometer) and keep the seeds there for 20 minutes. While the water cools down, they are disinfected.

I used to calibrate the seeds - only sow large ones. Now I don't calibrate - I sow everything, and then I discard weak, crooked seedlings.

Temperature regime

I sow seeds shallowly - 0.5-1 cm into moist soil, sprinkle a little dry soil on top. It is better to take dishes for growing seedlings not very deep - 5-8 cm. After sowing, they should be placed in a place where the temperature before emergence will be + 18 … + 20 ° С. And after the emergence of shoots, it is advisable to install it in the brightest place and create a temperature of + 6 … + 10 ° С during the day and + 4 … + 5 ° С at night for 3-5 days. For this I put the dish in the refrigerator. After such hardening during the day in sunny weather the temperature is needed + 15 … + 18 ° С, in cloudy weather + 12 … + 13 ° С, at night + 6 … + 8 ° С.

This is the temperature regime offered by Grigory Fedorovich: before germination + 22 … + 25 ° С, and after germination + 14 … + 18 ° С during the day and + 12 … + 14 ° С at night. If you use such a temperature regime, then as soon as the seeds sprout, carry them, take them to the greenhouse. After 1999, I also tried to grow this way, but the seedlings in the greenhouse lay down, bent, however, the leaves grew large and faster than it was in the case when I put them on the veranda of the summer house after the apartment. I will clarify that the breeder made such conclusions about early maturing varieties, there is no such information about other varieties.

Pickling cabbage seedlings

I dive seedlings into separate containers in the same soil in which they grew before. It is better to dive the seedlings in the phase of well-opened cotyledons and the first true leaf 1-1.5 cm in size. The sooner you dive, the faster the seedlings will take root. It can be sown in the phase of 1-2 true leaves, but such seedlings will take longer to take root. When picking, you need to deepen the seedlings to the cotyledonous leaf.

Top dressing

If you, like me, have the "Living Earth" soil, which I have been using in recent years, then there is no need to work according to the previous standard - for early ripening varieties, two top dressing, for late varieties - three top dressing. I think that in this case it is necessary to act differently, since seedlings of early ripening varieties grow for 50-55 days, in some varieties - up to 60 days.

And in the "Living Earth" soil, food is enough for a month or less. So you need to feed. I do this: I carry out the first feeding with ammonium nitrate, however, now you can't buy it everywhere, or with urea. And I do the second one before planting in a permanent place with full mineral fertilizer.

Seedlings of mid-season varieties grow 35-40 days before planting in the ground, which means that you can also carry out two dressings, but I do not have time to do two. Usually, ten days before disembarking to a permanent place, I feed it with full mineral fertilizer. I don't feed the seedlings with organic matter, there is enough of it in this soil. But before planting seedlings, I fill the ridge with organic matter so that the cabbage has enough nutrition in the event of a rainy season until the end of the growing season. I feed on my garden bed with full mineral fertilizer with trace elements; I can spend one top dressing with an infusion of herbs in a rainy summer.

I cannot give the exact doses of mineral fertilizer for everyone, since everyone has different soils. On soddy-podzolic soils, the ratio N: P: K = 2: 1: 3, on floodplain meadows N: P: K = 1.5: 1: 3, on peat-boggy soils N: P: K = 1: 1.5:4. For early-maturing varieties, the dose of potassium can be reduced by 30-50%, so it turns out that in early-maturing varieties we manage to make only two additional fertilizing: the first with nitrogen fertilizers, the second before heading out, after about the twentieth leaf.

I remember when I worked as an agronomist, we grew cabbage in the field, which was flooded by the river every spring. There was no need to observe crop rotation, they plowed only in spring, plowed mullein and horse manure, fed them once with potassium chloride, then there was no potassium sulfate (it was 52-55 years ago). Now the gardener can use potassium nitrate (K-44%, N-13.8%), potassium sulfate (K-40-42%). On mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties of cabbage, three to five dressings are carried out. Despite the fact that you brought organic matter into the garden, it is advisable to carry out one of the dressings with an infusion of mullein or infusion of bird droppings.

I use a mullein like this: I fill 2/3 of the volume of a bucket or some kind of tank with a mullein. Then I add water to the top and put it in the greenhouse, stir it. As soon as the liquid begins to foam well, ferment, I begin to feed the plants, diluting with water. To do this, pour one liter of infusion into a bucket of water. But if the manure is not very "live", then I increase the concentration, this will not spoil the cabbage. I make a solution of bird droppings as follows: I add 1 liter of fermented droppings to 20 liters of water. If I put humus or compost under the seedlings in the garden, then I make the concentration stronger.

Read the next part. Preparation of ridges and sowing of white cabbage →

Luiza Klimtseva, experienced gardener

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