Cabbage Question

This is only the third year I've grown cabbages. I've had great luck with them and we've made some real good sauerkraut, so this year I'm growing twice as many cabbage heads as I did last year.

I ordered Danish Ballhead seeds this year, as that's supposed to be a good variety for kraut. It makes big heads too, 7 lbs. or so. I've had my cabbage in the ground since the last week of April, and they should be ready in the first half of August. At this point they have enormous lower leaves and are just starting to form dense heads. These are BIG plants, 2 1/2 to 3 feet across from tip to tip of the lower leaves.

Here's my question: Unlike the cabbages I grew the first two years, these Danish Ballhead cabbages are up on STALKS. The stalks are about 1" to 1 1/2" in diameter, and the lower leaves start 8 or 9 inches above the ground. Those stalks can't possibly support the weight once they start forming heads - so will they lay over to let the head rest on the ground, or will they break themselves off? They've got to do one or the other, and I don't want them to break off.

I'm thinking about sticking a thick layer of mulch under them, between the ground and the lower leaves, to support the weight. What do you think?

Sounds like you're gonna have quite a harvest, Ozark!

I've never had cabbage grow that tall of an upright stalk before so can't comment from experience. Most of my cabbages tend to lay over from the weight though so I assume as the weight comes on those stalks will bend to the ground. However, the plant/heads themselves will still grow upright, reaching for the light and not grow a sideways head. Your stalks will bend/grow in a curvy fashion. The worse that can happen would be if high winds kick in and push them over prematurely.

Shoe (with too many Caraflex cabbages in the garden, many worm eaten but most probably salvageable)

Thanks, Shoe - that makes sense. When I remember how tough cabbage stalks are when I cut them off to harvest, I guess they're not going to break too easy. I've got a big pile of wood chips, and I may stick some under the cabbages so they don't flop all over the place.

I'm thinking I overdid it this season. Two years ago I grew 8 heads of cabbage. We ate some fresh, gave some away, and made a few jars of kraut. That kraut turned out so good we couldn't believe it, and we wished we had a lot more of it.

So last year I grew 16 cabbage heads. Same thing - we ate some fresh, gave some to our kids, and canned more sauerkraut. That kraut was so doggone good we ran out of it again about January.

This year I'm raising 32 heads, and I ordered Danish Ballhead seeds 'cause that variety has "a dense head especially suited for sauerkraut-making". Somehow in my mind I confused "dense" with "small", and I was thinking D. Ballhead is a small variety. Nope - I looked it up and one seed supplier claims it has 10 lb. heads and they all say at least 7 lbs. They're already humongous-sized in my garden, that's what got me wondering.

So I may be harvesting between 220 and 320 lbs. of cabbage! I guess that oughta give us enough kraut this time, huh? LOL

Wow! I think you need to have a Cabbage Festival at your place sometime!

I remember you posting about making kraut last year and I made some in some quart jars. Mine came out so-so, very crunchy but I was not impressed w/the overall flavor. I even made some with carrots in it, some with garlic in it. Recipes came from Google. Have you shared your recipe on DG by any chance and I've forgotten about it?

Shoe, thinking those D. Ballheads sound like a pretty nice cabbage to me!

Shoe, I don't have an exact recipe for sauerkraut. I just Googled it and went by that.

On kraut-making day I cut the cabbage heads in chunks and feed them through a food processor with the coarse shredder blade on it. I don't have an old-fashioned crock, so I got a food-grade white 6-gallon plastic bucket with a lid at the homebrew shop we used to own.

I put the shredded kraut in the bucket and sprinkle non-iodized sea salt on every layer according to the recipe - I'll have to look the amount of salt-per-pound up again. As I'm filling the bucket I mash the cabbage some with a potato masher to start getting the juice out, and we sprinkle in caraway seeds as the bucket fills.

When I've got all the cabbage I want in the bucket, I put a dinner plate on top of it. I found a dinner plate at WalMart to exactly fit inside that bucket, with about 1/4" space at the edges. For a weight to set on top of the plate, I use a plastic 1-gallon milk jug full of water - I think that's about 9 lbs.

The bucket goes on the workbench in my shop, where it's cool, and I put the lid on top loosely. That plate is soon covered with juice, and I keep any white mold scraped off the top of the juice. The mold doesn't hurt anything - it can only live at the top in the presence of air.

We keep tasting, and the kraut gets stronger the longer you leave it. When it tastes right, we put it in pint canning jars and go through the regular canning routine with a boil in a canner and all that. This year I'm going to make more, and I'll have at least two buckets going. In one batch, I intend to mix in some shredded beets and turn the kraut red - my wife says that's the way her Polish grandpa made it, like they did in the old country.

I think you'd like Danish Ballhead cabbage. I found one reference to it being grown as early as 1415 in Denmark, so that's gotta be one of the oldest heirloom veggie varieties around. I had no idea it was going to be so BIG. Good deal!

Great! Thanks!

So if you have your cabbage in the bucket, a lid on top, and a gallon milk jug, there is still room to put the lid on the bucket? I assume you only fill the bucket half way or so, eh?

Great idea w/the beets. I assume they go in raw, like the cabbage is.

Maybe I better so start some cabbage seeds this week for my fall planting.

Thanks again.
Shoe

Apparently from the lack of comments and pictures in plantfiles no one grows either Carafex or Danish Ballhead. Maybe Shoe, you and Ozark should brush up on your photography and writing skills. Never have grown Caraflex, but have grown the competition Point One. Little small for my use but it is prettier than Jersey Wakefield. Many of the old time cabbages had tall stems. Many venders at the turn of 19th -20th centurys touted short stem varieties. Drumheads in particular were noted for falling over. As a kid we only grew the Drumheads and thier descendant Flat Dutch as winter cabbage. They take a long season, so they were normally planted in July for midfall harvest. ( October-November). Ball Heads were noted as kraut cabbage and that was not a big part of our diet, so while I have seen them, we never grew them.
Caraflex http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/178757/
Danish ballhead http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/60849/

Farmerdill - I didn't know that many of the old-time cabbage varieties had long stems. Thanks, I learned something.

Yes, I'll take pictures and post information in PlantFiles about this season's experience growing Danish Ballhead. Probably about how they flop over into my garden paths because of the long stems - but that's not such a bad thing. lol

Here's what a few of my Danish Ballhead cabbages look like today.

Long-stemmed cabbages - not as pretty as long-stemmed roses, but better eating!

Lookin' good, Ozark!

Farmerdill, if I find some Caraflex that don't look so ugly (worm eaten) I'll be sure to get pics.

shoe