How to properly grow and care for white cabbage outdoors
The cultivation of white cabbage is a laborious process for a beginner, since there are many conditions under which the development of a plant stops, and it dies without even forming into a fruit inflorescence. To get a good harvest of cabbage, it is necessary to have a spacious sunny area in the garden, not shaded by tall-growing crops and having the required level of acidity, which is not always achievable in the country.
The main difficulty in caring for cabbage lies in the intolerance to the culture of heat, which in the middle lane in the Moscow region or the Moscow region is kept at the level of 25-35 throughout the middle of summer. At this temperature, the growth of cabbage stops and further maturation of the ovary becomes impossible.
How to grow cabbage properly? It is possible to make it easier for yourself in the absence of a large gardening experience by acquiring modern breeding varieties of vegetables that give high yields even with some deviations in care. White cabbage propagates by seeds tested for germination at home.
Outdoor planting and care, and everything else about growing a capricious vegetable - in detail below.
Preparing the soil for planting
How to get a good harvest with a high density and a sufficient size of inflorescences? How to grow white cabbage correctly? You should start with the preparation of the site, which should not be in a lowland, so as not to serve as a drain for rainwater, or on an elevation where the sun beats all day. For more than two years in a row, cabbage has not been planted on the same perimeter. For seedlings, the former potato, tomato or cucumber beds with well-loosened soil, with remnants of rotted leaves treated from insects, are ideal.
In terms of acidity, a neutral soil is suitable for cabbage, or one that has minimal indicators of acidic matter. These values are reduced with the help of dolomite flour or lime immediately after the previous harvest from this site, that is, in August-October.
The airiness and oxygen saturation of the poor, compressed soil increases the introduction of sand and compost into the soil at the rate of 7-liter capacity of the mixture per 1 m2 landing area.
The soil is fertilized again in early spring, shortly after the snow melts. A large volume of mass is prepared, the formation of which occurs without maintaining strict proportions, from superphosphate and wood ash. Then, before digging, the mixture is combined with manure and the site is abundantly flavored. If there is no way to get a large amount of fertilizer, you can prepare 1-2 buckets of the mixture and apply fertilizer directly to each hole when planting.
Planting seedlings in open ground
How to grow white cabbage? Mid-season cabbage varieties can be planted in open ground as early as late April - early May. Late varieties stick to early June, when the ground is well warmed up. The time of disembarkation is chosen in the late afternoon, focusing on the weather forecast for the coming days, promising cloudy weather or drizzling rains.
The plot of prepared land needs to be dug up again, large clods are broken and shallow holes made, with half-meter deviations in a row and with a distance of 50-60 cm between rows. Most of the questions why cabbage is not tied can subsequently be attributed to this particular period:
- holes are located too often;
- the land is not well loosened;
- the central bud of the sprout turns out to be immersed in the ground. This also applies to the leaves of seedlings - they should not be buried.
Each hole, before the seedlings are in it, is filled with water, and when the plant is already planted, it is poured with dry soil to the lowest leaves. In stable sunny weather, when it is no longer possible to delay the landing, a shade awning is installed over the garden bed, or some kind of curtain, which is removed only after 4-6 days.
It is also possible to grow white cabbage in the open field by directly sowing seeds into the soil. For this, continuous grooves are made in the bed 1-1.5 cm deep, they are shed with a weak concentration of manganese and seed material is introduced into the grooves in a thin stream. A removable greenhouse must be installed over such a vegetable garden, and care for seedlings at first consists only in watering.
Seeds for propagation should be checked before planting. What should be done to assess germination so that the cabbage grows and develops fully and is tied on time? First of all, select intact seeds, 5-7 times more than the amount of seedlings you need to get. Then the seeds are tied in a cotton cloth and moistened abundantly in a saucer.
After 5 days of constant stay in a humid environment, healthy seeds sprout, which means they multiply successfully. We select them for planting and grow cabbage.
Proper watering
Caring for white cabbage in the open field by 70% consists in the correct planning of irrigation, corresponding to the phases of development of the cabbage inflorescence. Until the seedlings form a full-fledged root system, watering is done daily, with a consumption of 100-150 ml of water per well. Do not forget about the correct shading of the area so that the liquid does not evaporate too quickly.
Between the formation of a full rosette of leaves and the formation of a head of cabbage, in a flowering state of seedlings, caring for the plant requires regular watering while maintaining soil moisture 80%. When the heads of cabbage have tied up and the process of growth of the cabbage head has begun, the frequency of watering is slightly reduced, to 70%. In mid-June (12-15 days before harvest), any artificial watering is stopped.
It is a big mistake in the period when the cabbage is blooming and the head of cabbage is just starting to set, to stop regular watering and to organize care with a rare but abundant flooding of the garden on rare days in the country. Such an irrational distribution of moisture is seen as the reason for the rapid growth of the root system, to the detriment of the development of the inflorescence. We must not forget that cabbage loves moisture, as long as it is freely absorbed into the soil. Cabbage grows in stagnant water for a short time and soon rots.
Loosening and hilling
Agrotechnology of growing white cabbage attaches great importance to hilling plants and timely loosening of the aisle. The first loosening is carried out two weeks after planting the seedlings, further - as needed, so that a coarse crust does not form between the plants.
The first hilling is carried out at approximately the same period or earlier.This is done to protect the thin stems of tall seedlings.
How to spud seedlings correctly? In warm weather, without wind and precipitation, the soil is slightly loosened and crushed by hand at a distance of 20 cm from each individual sprout. Then, with small rakes or also, with your hands, the crushed earth is collected around the stem of the seedling, forming a hill to the lowest leaves. You can help the plant to more easily endure strengthening by hilling, two days before the procedure by introducing some kind of gentle dressing.
How to feed the sprouts? Experienced gardeners recommend organic fertilizers of a strongly reduced concentration so that caring for a white cabbage does not result in burns to the roots and lower leaves of the seedling.
It is recommended to sprinkle cabbage for the second time 3 weeks after the first. The re-hilled bush is strengthened in the root system and does not suffer from excess moisture.
How many procedures are required in total? During the period of vegetable development, you need to huddle it three times - tritium times will have to be 45-47 days from the moment of planting, when the grown cabbage is poured with juice.
Feeding base
How to grow white cabbage without the use of nitrates and growth accelerators? In parallel with the first loosening and hilling, seedlings are fed with organic fertilizer. Chicken droppings are used, diluted with water at a concentration of 1 dry matter, 15 glasses of water. Liquid is poured into a small watering can with the diffuser removed and carefully, lifting the leaves, fertilizer is introduced into each well. It is advisable to do this immediately after watering, so that the solution "disperses" in the upper soil layer, and does not soak into the depth.
After 14 days, the seedlings are fed with 10% mullein infusion, which was diluted and set to infuse 10 days before use. They also water the sprouts when the fruits are already starting to set.
For supporters of mineral fertilizers, the scheme for feeding cabbage is different. On the 14th day from landing in the ground, a solution is made from the following components:
- 10 g of urea;
- 20 g superphosphate;
- 15 g of potassium chloride.
This dry mixture is dissolved in a bucket of water and poured into a groove specially dug exactly between the rows, which is then filled up. 21 days after the first procedure, when the heads of cabbage have already set, a similar portion is prepared from the above elements and the whole process is reproduced exactly.
20-30 days before cutting the heads of cabbage, nitrogen fertilization is stopped and watering is limited or completely stopped.
Foliar dressing is used for late seedlings, if the sprouts are weak, have stopped growing or have turned yellow. The solution is made at the rate of four liters of water (or half a bucket) and take for it:
- 1 kg of potassium chloride;
- 70 g double superphosphate;
- 10 g molybdenum.
The composition for foliar feeding is infused for 24 hours, and then used for irrigation from a household sprayer.
Diseases of cabbage
What else is the cultivation and care of white cabbage? Of course, in protecting the plant from various diseases and in urgently taken measures when they are detected. In central Russia, the following pathological conditions of this vegetable are most common:
- Keela is a fungus that develops in the root system with excess moisture. Characterized by growths and swelling of individual rhizomes. There are still no remedies against the keel, so you just need to find a diseased plant and remove it from the garden, and treat the soil with formalin;
- White rot is expressed by a weeping white bloom resulting from a lack of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. To prevent the disease, it is enough to follow the feeding scheme;
- Fusarium - is found by a brown ring-shaped pattern on a cut of a deciduous cabbage petiole. Fusarium cannot be cured - the plant is dug up, and the planting site is sprayed with furacilin.
How to deal with the bottom leaves of cabbage
Whether to cut off or leave the bottom leaves of cabbage is not stipulated in the gardening manuals, therefore each owner proceeds from the decision that is beneficial to him in terms of the result. For those wishing to grow a large cabbage head, the argument in favor of removing the "extra" leaves is drawing off a large amount of juice in them, which can go directly to the head of cabbage.
The list of advantages, when deciding whether to pick off the leaves, also includes the theory of better air exchange between plants and the fact that it is much easier to take care of - to loosen and huddle the rows - for cabbage.
Disadvantages of the indicated task - whether to pick off the large lower leaves:
- in reducing the rate of maturation of cabbage. Conventionally - 1 removed leaf adds a day to the ripening period;
- in reducing the usefulness of the formed head of cabbage, since vitamin C, which is produced precisely in the lower leaf, does not have time to turn into a vegetable;
- in the loss of juice by the plant and attracting pests to this juice - aphids and cabbage moths. The latter is a scourge for cabbage in Belarus and is gradually taking the same position in Russia.
Conclusion - it is most rational to get rid of the lower leaves when care is carried out in the last 2-3 weeks before harvesting. It is best to remove yellowed and faded leaves, and whether to pick off the green and strong ones is up to the owner to decide.
