- Cabbages, a plant that I have a long
and storied history with as a gardener.
Four or five years ago in my old home,
I grew a massive cabbage.
It got me hooked on the plant,
and then I hunted down giant cabbages
from a friend across the pond in the UK
who holds a Guinness Book of World Records.
I sourced some seeds. I lovingly cared for these seeds.
I named the plant San Juan Cabbagestrano,
a little fun play on a city here in California.
I thought that might give it the vigor it needed.
Unfortunately, three generations
of San Juan Cabbagestrano's line have died
on my watch, (baby cries)
and that's why in today's video,
I'm gonna give you the tricks and tips
and mistakes to avoid when growing the beautiful cabbage.
Mistake number one is just growing one type of cabbage.
I encourage you to try out different varieties.
So this is a green cabbage right here.
It's a longer maturing variety
that I pretty much am gonna get all of them
at the same exact time.
Now, in my case, that's not a big deal.
I can give them to family and friends,
process into sauerkraut.
But if you are in a smaller space,
or you don't really have a plan, this can be a bad idea.
You can grow a smaller, quicker maturing one
for fresh coleslaw, and then you can grow a couple
of these larger ones for storage or sauerkraut.
Another reason why you may wanna grow different varieties
is because not every cabbage variety matures
at the exact same time.
Let's say this one here is 80 days,
and you can get one that grows in a hundred days.
You could actually start those at the same time
in the season, but the harvest window would be staggered
by an average of 20 days.
So it gives you a little time to actually use the stuff
that's coming out of the garden.
Mistake number two is not fertilizing your cabbage enough.
If you think about what a cabbage is,
it's really these large fan leaves that start to wrap,
and curl around, and form
this head. - Hello!
- But from a botanical perspective,
it's really just leaves that have been sort
of wrapped on one another.
What that means,
what leafy growth mostly needs is a lot of nitrogen.
Actually, cabbage is classified as a heavy feeder,
much like something like a tomato is a heavy feeder.
So at the beginning of the season,
a really good thing to do
when you transplant that cabbage in,
grab some compost or grab some high nitrogen fertilizer,
go around the base of the plant,
and start sprinkling or filling
maybe about a foot out or so,
and that kind of brings us to our next mistake.
Mistake number three ties into the last mistake,
because cabbages are sort of greedy plants.
They need a lot of food,
and they also need a lot of water and space.
It's an interesting plant,
because you have these large fan leaves
that fan out in a pretty wide space.
I mean, this is about a two,
two and a half foot across cabbage from leaf to leaf,
but the actual head itself is maybe about six
to eight inches in size.
That being said, you still have to give it that space,
so that it has the water and food that it needs,
which means you need to give it at least 12 inches
on either side, up to 24 inches on either side,
depending on the variety.
And on the seed packet,
you can usually see what that spacing requirement is.
But this is something where you really need
to visualize the end state of the plant,
how that seed is going to actually show up
as a final ready-to-harvest plant so you don't crowd it out.
Mistake four has to do with placement and timing.
Timing first, if you mess your timing window up,
the plant's just not gonna grow that well.
So when temps drop below 45 degrees, it's gonna struggle.
It might trigger an early flower or early bolt, and also,
if you try to grow cabbage like straight through the summer,
you're gonna have a bad time.
But the more permanent mistake you can make here
is the placement of your cabbage in your garden.
So cabbage is a leafy green technically,
but unlike maybe a lettuce, or a spinach, or a kale,
it can actually handle a little bit more sun
than those plants, mostly because it's forming this head.
it's getting a little bit more compact.
It's not as loose and airy
and sort of drying out in intense heat.
That being said, only during that heading up phase
is when you wanna be giving it a lot of sun.
In our area, for example,
you get some pretty decent early spring
or late winter hot periods,
where you would want to shade this out in the afternoon.
So I would say, as a general rule,
give it a lot of sun as it's starting to head up.
But then once it does head up,
you can hopefully have it in a spot where, by that time,
it's getting a little bit of protection or afternoon shade.
Mistake number five is watering,
and it's mostly on the overwatering side
rather than the underwatering side.
Underwatering is mostly a mistake you'd make early on
in its life while these leaves are still heading up.
Remember this is mostly water, guys,
so giving it some water's gonna help it grow.
But the problem comes when the cabbage gets
to heading size, it really starts to head.
That head's getting a little bit tight.
What happens, especially in rain,
is the water pressure can actually pop the cabbage,
and it can split right at the top.
And you know that might not be a big deal for you
if you're gonna use it for coleslaw or something,
but if you do want that nice, perfect, beautiful head,
make sure to dial your watering down just a tad
as that cabbage starts to head and tighten up.
And with that said, I'm gonna harvest one right now,
and show you my favorite way of harvesting.
It's called the decabbagetation.
You go ahead and grab it like this,
and you give it that twist.
Oh, hold on.
You go ahead and grab it like this, give it that twist.
And there you go, right outta the ground,
a nice, beautiful cabbage.
Hopefully these mistakes help you grow
your first epic cabbage.
Good luck in the garden, and keep on growing.
(upbeat music)