Cabbage

Tell me about raising cabbages, please. I grow a big garden every year, but I only tried cabbage once about 20 years ago. As I recall, aphids and cutworms pretty much got them but I probably wasn't taking care of the garden like I should have in those days.

I'm starting pepper and tomato plants indoors under lights and I bought a pack of cabbage seeds - so I figured I'd plant the cabbages indoors about 4-6 weeks before transplanting into the garden. Since cabbage doesn't keep well, I plan to only raise about 8 heads. We like fried cabbage and we use it in stews, and my wife wants to make coleslaw. I don't think I want to mess with making and canning kraut, but I could give some cabbages to our daughters and their families if all goes well.

Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

Cover them up - floating row cover - and that should keep off the bugs you can secure it around the edges with dirt or pieces of bamboo or rebar and gradually let it get looser as the plants grow. I have to cover my carrots because of carrot rust fly and this works really well. Ive never covered my cabbage but I will this year.

I'm not far from you and we used to try and raise cabbages but finally gave up as we'd get cabbage worms on the inside of the heads and had to use insecticides to get rid of them and we did'nt go in for poisons. My neighbor raises them using poison and always gives me some every year. I wash them many times before i use them but have to admit they sure are good.

Bacillus thuringiensis (BT)

I used to get this and other stuff from Mellinger's, now long gone. I'm still searching for other suppliers half so good or varied in their stock (as well as affordable).

I don't have affordable sources for this or for the Pyrethrum/Rotenone mixture I use. Still searching after all these years.

Space your planting out two plants every two to three weeks so that your harvest does not come all at once. Start with a quick-maturing early variety plant two this week and plant two more in two or three weeks. Or plant a couple of quick maturing varieties now also plant two that are late maturing--that way you can enjoy your cabbage over a longer harvest period. Cabbage are heavy feeders so give them side dressing of compost tea every couple of weeks--and keep the soil evenly moist, not dry or wet, for even, quick growth. Cover the plants with a light horticultural fabric or double bird netting for a couple of weeks if you see cabbage butterflies in the area--cabbage loopers will follow.

Something we used to do when we grew them in Maine was to put rabbit manure and goat manure right in with the cabbages (and related plants). The manure from rabbits and goats was mild enough that it did not burn the plants, and kept them fed.

We also used to store our cabbages in the root cellar. We would put one large head per milk crate, stacked to the ceiling, so that the cabbage got plenty of ventilation. The outer leaves would dry out something fierce, but the inner parts would stay good for long periods of time and we could harvest in October or so, and still enjoy cabbage as late as March.