How to plant cabbage in open ground with seedlings

It is difficult to imagine the diet of the average without cabbage. This vegetable has long been grown in Europe, and in Our Country at the beginning of the 20th century more than XNUMX varieties of garden cabbage were known. It is believed that ordinary, white cabbage is unpretentious, and it is quite easy to grow it. In fact, the gardener may face a lot of difficulties and eventually lose the entire crop or a significant part of it.

When to plant cabbage in the ground, what determines the timing of planting, and how to grow a decent crop of healthy vegetables – this is the article.

What determines the timing of planting cabbage

To figure out how to properly plant cabbage in open ground, you first need to decide on the variety and variety of this vegetable.

Cabbage belongs to the cruciferous family, today there are more than a dozen varieties of vegetables that are commonly eaten. The most popular types of cabbage in Our Country are:

1. White cabbage – the most common variety in domestic gardens. The fruit of this species is a dense head of cabbage, which is used for making fresh salads, salting and adding to various dishes.
2. Red cabbage contains even more nutrients than the usual garden variety. Outwardly, it is similar to the previous view, only the heads are painted in a dark red-violet hue. Delicious salads are prepared from such a vegetable.
3. В cauliflower edible flower stalks collected in elastic brushes. A bush of such a vegetable looks like a white head surrounded by greenery, consisting of many underdeveloped flowers. The view is very useful and tasty, the fruits of such cabbage can be stewed or fried.
4. Broccoli similar to cauliflower, but its inflorescences are colored green or purple. It is rich in mineral salts and antioxidants.
5. Brussels the variety is a thick long stem, on which there are many miniature heads that look like ordinary white cabbage. Such “babies” of vitamin C, for example, contain more than oranges and lemons. Therefore, the vegetable is very useful and nutritious.
6. Savoy cabbage very similar to white-headed, only its leaves are corrugated, and the head is less dense. Fresh salads rich in vitamins and microelements are cut from such a vegetable.
7. В kohlrabi contains many vitamins, calcium and glucose. The stems of this variety are ball-shaped, long leaves grow from it on high petioles.
8. Chinese cabbage today it is especially popular; in recent years, summer residents have begun to sow it on their plots. The fiber of the heads is very tender, and the leaves are corrugated, this species makes delicious salads. But this kind of vegetable is not stored for long.
9. Chinese cabbage outwardly resembles lettuce leaves, because the plant does not have a head or ovaries. But its taste and nutritional qualities correspond to garden cabbage.

Having decided on the type of cabbage, you can start growing it. Regardless of the type, it is recommended to plant cabbage in open ground no earlier than two true leaves appear on its seedlings. But seedlings should not outgrow either – such seedlings do not acclimatize well and do not give good yields.

So, cauliflower and broccoli are considered the most thermophilic, so they are planted in the ground later than the rest. And the Savoy variety, on the contrary, is able to endure cold and even frost – cabbage seedlings can be transferred to open ground already in the middle of spring.

Most often, s grow white cabbage, and more attention should be paid to this species. So, depending on the timing of maturation, they distinguish:

• Precocious white cabbage. Its distinctive feature is smaller heads with delicate and not very elastic leaves, its color is often not white, but greenish. Such a vegetable is used to prepare fresh salads and seasonal dishes, but early cabbage is unsuitable for long-term storage, so it is not canned, pickled or salted.
• The middle-ripening varieties already have some keeping quality. They make quite tasty and nutritious salads, you can salt or preserve such cabbage, it is quite possible that the heads of cabbage will last until next spring.
• If you need a variety for long winter storage, choose late-ripening cabbage. Its heads are tight, large and elastic, often painted white.

A simple question will help determine the variety: “For what purposes does a summer resident or gardener need cabbage?”. But at this stage it is necessary to take into account the climate of the region in which the garden is located – in Siberia or the Urals, for example, it is better not to plant late-ripening varieties, they may not ripen in a short summer. But in the southern regions of Our Country, many gardeners harvest two crops of early-ripening vegetables per season, while still managing to grow late varieties for winter storage.

How to determine the timing of planting seedlings of cabbage in the ground

First of all, the timing of planting depends on the precocity of the variety (as already mentioned above). The second important factor is the climatic zone in which the gardener’s plot is located.

In most of the country, early-ripening white cabbage is planted in the soil around mid-May. Mid-season and late varieties are planted here at the end of the month.

Residents of the North and the Urals will have to shift the indicated dates by 1-2 weeks, but in the southern part of Our Country, seedlings can be taken out into the garden 10-12 days earlier than the standard time.

Many summer residents today are guided by the lunar calendar, however? this is not very convenient, because there may be only two or three days favorable from this point of view for the whole month. It is difficult to compare your own schedule and the state of seedlings with the recommendations of astrologers.

The generally accepted rules of the lunar calendar are as follows:

• plant seedlings, sow seeds should be when the moon is in a growing phase;
• on the new moon and full moon, all landings are prohibited;
• cabbage does not like to be “disturbed” on Thursdays;
• nothing should be planted on Wednesday and Friday.

Well, and the main rule is that you need to plant any plants only with positive thoughts and a good mood.

For planting cabbage seedlings in the ground, it is better to choose a cloudy day, even better if it drizzles lightly. When it is hot outside and there are no clouds in the sky, seedlings are planted in the evening, closer to sunset.

When figuring out when to plant cabbage seedlings is most favorable, it is important not to lose sight of the condition of the seedlings themselves. Ideally, cabbage seedlings during this period should:

• be strong and healthy;
• have a formed root system;
• undergo hardening;
• have at least 4-5 true leaves (early ripe varieties – 7-8 leaves each);
• reach a height of 15-20 cm.

For such results, at least 45 days must pass from the date of sowing cabbage seeds for seedlings. With proper care, timely feeding, additional illumination and sufficient watering, the seedlings will be ready for transplanting into the ground on the 45-55th day after sowing.

How to plant cabbage for seedlings

Planting seedlings always begins with the preparation of seeds and soil. Cabbage seeds are quite large – these are balls, about 2-3 mm in diameter, dark brown in color. Experienced gardeners recommend not immediately sowing cabbage seeds in cups with soil, but first preparing them for germination.

Preparation of cabbage seeds is as follows:

• they are placed in hot water, the temperature of which does not exceed 50 degrees. This is necessary to disinfect the seed, which often contains viruses and bacteria that are dangerous for cabbage seedlings;
• in order to stimulate the seeds and enhance the growth of seedlings, the material is soaked for a couple of hours in special stimulant solutions for seedlings (such as “Epin”);
• after the seeds have been soaked in warm water or a solution, they need to be dipped in very cold water for five minutes – this will harden the seedlings in the future.

The land for seedlings of cabbage should be loose and nutritious – these are the main conditions. Its acidity should be neutral, if the soil is acidic, lime or chalk is added to it.

It is better to prepare a substrate for seedlings in the fall, because in early spring it is not always possible to collect the necessary components in the garden – the ground can be wet, sometimes there is still snow on the site at this time (after all, seedlings are planted in March).

Cabbage seedlings in open ground will feel better if the seeds are first sown in a substrate that contains soil from the same garden area. A substrate is prepared from a part of humus and a part of soddy land; a little wood ash is added to loosen and disinfect it.

Such areas should rest from cabbage crops for at least three years.

The soil poured into the container should be poured abundantly with warm water – after that, watering is stopped until the moment when cotyledon leaves appear on the seedlings.

Seeds are placed in depressions of about 1 cm and sprinkled with loose earth. Containers with seedlings are covered with foil and placed in a warm place – the temperature should be kept at 20 degrees.

After 4-5 days, the first leaves should appear. The film must be removed, and the seedlings themselves should be placed in a cooler place with a temperature regime of 6-8 degrees. Here the cabbage will be until the formation of the first true leaf.

When the leaf has appeared, the containers are lifted onto the windowsills or placed in another place where the temperature during the day is kept at around 16-18 degrees, and at night it drops by several divisions of the thermometer.

At the same time, you can carry out the first dressing of cabbage seedlings. In order not to burn tender plants, the ground between them is pre-watered. From above, the seedlings are shed with a liquid solution of slurry, herbal infusion or other organic fertilizer.

Feeding is repeated when the 6-7th leaf is formed, and the seedlings themselves are ready to be transferred to a permanent place in the garden. To do this, use a composition of ammonium nitrate, potassium chloride and superphosphate.

Seedlings should be watered regularly, but it is important to ensure that the soil is not waterlogged – the vegetable often suffers from fungal infections (black leg, for example). The earth between plants should be carefully loosened, because the roots of seedlings need oxygen.

When the seedlings have 1-2 true leaves, it must be dived into individual containers. But this stage can be avoided if you immediately sow the seeds in pots or peat glasses. Before diving, the seedlings are watered abundantly, the plants are transferred along with an earthen clod, and the root is pinched a third of the length.

However, drafts and severe hypothermia of cabbage should be avoided – this will stop its growth.

So that the seedlings do not stretch, be squat and strong, they need a lot of sunlight. In March, the sun, unfortunately, may not be enough, so pots with seedlings are illuminated with phyto- or fluorescent lamps – plants need to be illuminated for 12-15 hours a day.

How to transfer cabbage seedlings to open ground

When to plant cabbage in the garden, we have already figured out. How to do it right to get a good harvest?

It is worth planting seedlings in the ground no earlier than it warms up well. Soil temperature should be at least 10-15 degrees. Checking the readiness of the earth is easy – just sit on it. If it is comfortable for a person to sit on a bed without bedding, then cabbage seedlings will like it there.

The beds for seedlings of cabbage are prepared in advance, digging up the ground on a spade bayonet and removing weeds. In winter, cow dung is brought in. In the spring prepare holes for seedlings. Their depth should slightly exceed the length of the seedling roots – it is approximately 15 cm. The distance between the holes should be sufficient – the planting pattern for most varieties of cabbage is 50×50 cm.

This is due to the love of culture for the sun and the need to ventilate the seedlings and the ground under it.

Plant seedlings of cabbage as follows:

1. Make holes for seedlings.
2. Pour nutrients into the bottom of each well. It can be manure, nitrophoska, other mineral fertilizers. Wood ash, a little peat and sand are added near the matchbox if the ground in the area is too dense. All this is mixed and covered with a thin layer of earth so as not to burn the roots of the seedlings.
3. Seedlings are taken out of a pot or box, their roots are examined and dipped in a growth stimulator.
4. Seedlings are deepened into the hole by cotyledon leaves.
5. Sprinkle cabbage seedlings with slightly moist soil and lightly tamp.

Only planted seedlings do not tolerate extreme heat very well, so the bushes need to be shaded for about a week with newspapers or agrofibre. Seedlings should also be covered when there is a chance of frost.

How to properly care for cabbage

The fact that the cabbage has acclimatized will be signaled by the appearance of the rudiments of new leaves. Now the plants are strong enough to withstand the sun and night cold.

Cabbage loves water very much – you need to water it often and plentifully, otherwise the heads of cabbage will be small and not crispy. About 10 liters of water should be poured under each bush every 2-3 days. Seedlings are watered a little less often only in cloudy or rainy weather.

Pests love cabbage, and it is also often subject to fungal infections. Therefore, plants must be regularly inspected to identify the danger at an early stage. Experienced gardeners recommend mulching cabbage beds to prevent weed growth. After all, they do not allow cabbage to ventilate normally, attract insect pests, and cause fungal diseases.

As mulch, you can use peat or chopped grass. To protect the cabbage from whitefly butterflies and aphids, strong-smelling plants such as marigolds, lemon balm, basil or thyme are planted next to the seedlings. Slugs can be lured out if you put a plate of beer between the seedling beds – during the night all the pests will crawl out to feast on alcohol, and they can simply be destroyed.

Fungal infections of cabbage seedlings are the most difficult to deal with – they are easier to prevent. For this, plants must be well ventilated, well-lit by the sun. It is very important to follow the schedule for watering seedlings, to loosen the soil between the rows.

Compliance with all rules and requirements guarantees stable vegetable crops. It remains to wait for the formation of heads and cut off the heads of cabbage for storage.