Long-term storage of cabbage all year round

What varieties are suitable

Gardeners usually select cabbage varieties for planting in such a way that it ripens gradually throughout the season. Then from the middle of summer you can feast on your fresh, only from the garden. Early varieties are intended for salads, the taste of early cabbage is gentle and pleasant, but you should not salt it or even stew it. You can’t store it either, and in terms of vitamin C content, it loses to later varieties. And the heads of late varieties seem tough in summer, and the leaves are not so tasty. But after a few months, after being stored in a cellar or basement, late cabbage seems to ripen, it acquires its real taste, loses bitterness, no longer seems tough, but only juicy. So it should be, that’s why they are late varieties.

Late varieties are distinguished by a long growing season, specially bred hybrids perfectly tolerate summer heat, their weight reaches 4 kg, and in some even 8 kg. They have different storage periods: some can be kept in the cellar for only 2 months, others – 4, there are varieties that are perfectly preserved until the new harvest. They even look different. The heads are dense, even hard, sometimes flattened, bitter in taste at the time of harvest – these should definitely be stored for a long time to enjoy them in the winter when they get their real taste.

The Zimovka variety, beloved by our gardeners, can be perfectly preserved for 7 months, without cracking or turning black. The cabbage of this variety has bluish-bluish leaves, covered, as if with a wax coating. It grows well in the north of the country, is not afraid of heat, and is not susceptible to fungal diseases. The varieties “Kolobok”, “Monarch” and “Krumont” have similar characteristics. And the Dutch hybrids “Marathon”, “Lennox” and “Bartolo” are today record holders for long-term storage.

There are even hybrids with a short growing season, such as “Eaton” and “Hurricane”, which can be kept in the cellar for 7 months. Cabbage of the Gift variety can be stored for at least 5 months. Her heads of cabbage are round, dense, grow more than 3 kg and do not crack, they are very good for pickling and pickling.

It is very bad for cabbage if the weather is hot during the formation of the head. Then its development stops, and the owner gets a bad harvest. To prevent this from happening, breeders have developed new hybrids that already take into account the climate changes that have occurred in our country. “Valentina”, “Maryana”, “Quartet”, “Olympus”, “Orbita”, “Charodey” – cabbage of these varieties copes wonderfully with temperature changes, easily tolerates heat and dryness in the middle of summer. And “Orbita” and “Valentina” can reach 7 kg of weight and winter well in the basement or cellar.

Gardeners like the Slava variety, it is a medium-late variety, it ripens for 3-4 months, has a good yield, does not crack, a head of cabbage reaches 5 kg of weight, it is stored for 3 months. For those who love large cabbage heads, there is a late variety “Moscow late”, its dense heads grow up to 8 kg and are stored for a long time without losing their qualities.

The variety “Turkiz” ripens in 4 months from the date of planting, it is well stored in winter at home, it is wonderful for pickles. But “Amager” refers to those varieties whose taste improves during storage. The Timiryazev Academy in its catalog offers the following varieties for long-term storage: Albatros F1, Amtrak F1, Aros F1, Bingo F1, Blizzard, Galaxy F1, Kalorama F1, Lying F1 , Latima F1, Rusinovka and Transma F1. They are resistant to major diseases, give good yields.

Video “Cabbage varieties for long-term storage”

Ways of storage

Before thinking about how to properly store cabbage, it must be properly harvested. Harvesting is carried out at the time specified for each variety. So mid-late varieties are harvested in early or mid-October, and late-ripening – after the first small frosts, it can even be November. For salting, you need to take cabbage in mid-October. Cabbage harvested ahead of time will quickly wither, and if it is frozen, the head will burst, so you need to follow the deadlines.

On a dry, fine day, the cabbage is cut with a sharp knife, leaving a stalk no shorter than 2 cm. Cabbage harvested in wet weather should dry out in the open air before it is put into storage. If you want to get seeds from your cabbage, then you need to choose the healthiest and most undamaged forks, dig it up with the roots, do not cut off the covering leaves, and store it in this form in the cellar. Such a precious head of cabbage is stored in limbo until spring, and then planted in the garden as soon as the earth thaws.

If the cabbage will be stored for a long time, it needs to be sorted out, leaving only intact heads of cabbage, cutting off excess leaves, leaving 2-3 covering leaves. Most often, at home, basements, cellars, cold storage rooms are chosen for storage. Ideal storage conditions should be as follows: temperature from -1 to + 1 degrees, humidity from 90% to 98%. If the temperature is higher, the cabbage will grow, if it is lower, it will freeze. Cabbage is a juicy vegetable, and during storage, it releases moisture, if the room is too wet, it can rot, if it is dry, it will dry out, and at a humidity of 98% it does not need to evaporate moisture intensively, the top pair of leaves will gradually dry out and fit snugly to the rest. During storage, the cabbages should not be in contact, and the stalks should be directed upwards.

The storage room is prepared in advance. It is cleaned in advance, it also needs to be ventilated, dried and disinfected. Disinfection is usually done like this: the walls are whitewashed with lime, and the entire room is then fumigated with sulfur. Cabbage is placed in boxes with holes or slots, and the boxes themselves are placed not on the floor, but on some kind of stand. They are also stored on a large wooden deck, folded in a pyramid: the largest go to the base, and the smallest are crowned, the cabbage is folded in a checkerboard pattern. The flooring should not be continuous, it is better to knock it down from separate rails, keeping the gaps between them.

Store cabbage wrapped in several layers of paper. Moreover, if a newspaper is used, then not in the first layer, in order to avoid touching the leaves of lead paint. Heads wrapped in paper are put into bags. They are still stored in the sand, for this a thick layer of sand is poured on the floor, cabbage is laid on it, and then covered with sand again. You can sand the cabbage, folded in boxes.

Cabbage is kept suspended not only for seeds. When harvesting, the cabbage should be dug up by the roots. In the storage room, a beam or board is installed under the ceiling at a distance of at least 30 cm from the wall. Nails are driven into it from both sides, on which cabbage is hung by the roots (by tying a rope). So you can hang the entire crop, but only if it is small.

Red cabbage is best stored lightly buried in the ground. To do this, they dig it up with roots and drop it in a bucket or even a bag in moist soil. They say that it is also possible to store white cabbage in basements.

All these storage methods have been known for a long time. But now, many have already tried to leave cabbage for the winter, wrapping it tightly with three layers of cling film. Selected heads of cabbage without damage must be tightly wrapped and put in the cellar on shelves or in the same boxes. To the question of how to store cabbage in refrigerators, the same answer – using cling film, only in the refrigerator we already store parts of the head of cabbage, which we cut, and we keep whole forks in the basement. Some gardeners have tried putting vegetables in thick new plastic bags. You can put one head or even several in them, the most important thing is that the bag is intact, the bags are tightly tied and stacked for storage.

In order to better preserve cabbage heads, some owners sprinkle them with chalk or cover them with clay. To do this, prepare a clay solution similar in consistency to dough for pancakes, coat the cabbage with this solution so that the leaves do not shine through, and hang it on a beam.

No matter where cabbage is stored, it still needs to be checked periodically and the one that has begun to deteriorate should be removed. How to store cabbage in the refrigerator? It can be frozen chopped, cooked for stew along with other vegetables. And whole heads can simply be folded into plastic bags and not tied.

Video “How to store cabbage for a long time”

From the video you will learn how you can save any amount of this vegetable for a very long time.