Crop Guide – Cabbage
Common Name Cabbage
Scientific Name Brassica oleracea
Uses Edible; Side dish (raw, steamed, roasted, boiled, sautéed), salads, slaw, microgreens
Crop Timeline
- Transplants: Start seeds 6 weeks before transplanting;
- Spring Planting: March (4 weeks before last frost)
- Fall Planting: September (6-8 weeks before first frost)
- Microgreens: Direct sow 2 weeks before consumption
Planting tips
- Fertilizer: Supply a constant supply of nitrogen rich organic fertilizer (bloodmeal, cottonseed meal, composted manure) throughout the growing season
- Number of plants per square foot: 1
- Growing structures: None
- Frost protection: None
Harvest
- Harvest 80-180 days from sowing, or 60-100 days from transplant
- Harvest large, single head at soil level when head is firm
Pests
- Cabbage worm/looper
- Description: Green, inch-worm, often found on leaf underside, along stem or leaf veins
- Treatment: Bt pesticide application or mechanical removal (pick them off and squish them)
- Slugs
- Description: small gray-brown, soft-bodied mollusk; slimy trail often noticeable
- Treatment: Hand pick, keep clean soil surface around plants, baits
- Diseases
- Rotate crops every 2 years; avoid planting another Brassica crop in that space in the “off” year.