Growing Cabbage

Homegrown cabbage has a crunchy texture and sweet flavor that you won't find in any supermarket. This delicious vegetable is part of what we call the brassica family, which includes broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. As with all brassicas, cabbage is a cool season crop, which means it grows its best in the cooler temperatures of spring and fall. To grow cabbage, you can start by sowing the seeds directly in the garden soil outdoors. To get a jump on the season, you can also start the seeds indoors ahead of the time that you would plant them outdoors. It's important that you space your plants 24 inches apart. This allows for the proper air circulation, which cuts down on disease pressure and potential insects. It also allows you to have really well-formed heads in the cabbage patch, because as you can your leaves grow quite large as they start to mature. It's important that you keep your cabbage patch well watered. Allowing it to fully dry out can stunt the growth, and it can also lead to a bitter flavor later in the season. Like most other vegetables, the brassica family needs six to eight hours of sun and loose, well-drained garden soil to perform its best. When plants get to about this size, you'll see the inner heads start to form. In about 90 to 100 days, the heads will be ready for harvest, depending on your climate and growing season. Each cabbage plant produces one harvestable head. After you harvest, you can remove the plant from the garden and put your next crop in. Since cabbage is a great storage crop, if you plant in spring and fall, you'll have homegrown cabbage all year long. Not only is homegrown cabbage delicious, it's also one of the healthiest vegetables that you can grow. And it's really versatile in a variety of dishes, whether you're using standard green and white varieties or the more colorful purple and red varieties. Grow your own cabbage patch and taste the fresh difference. Seeds are available year-round at burpee.com. Brassica plants can be found in late summer and early fall. Happy gardening!