This video provides a comprehensive guide to successfully growing cabbage, focusing on specific soil preparation, fertilization, spacing, pest control, watering, sunlight requirements, and seasonal planting strategies.
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what is going on everyone welcome to
another very exciting episode right here
on the Empire Gardener Channel in
today's episode we're gonna be doing
another Emma Gardner redo this is where
we take an older Emma Gardner video and
we redo it with better video quality
better public speaking skills and I'm no
longer an adolescent So today we're
going to be redoing how to grow cabbage
and so with that hopefully you guys are
going to enjoy let's go [Music]
[Music]
so the first step to growing cabbage is
successfully is understanding the soil
now this is where a lot of gardeners go
wrong because when you look at cabbages
you think oh this is beautiful Lush
plant it's super green it's a leafy
green crop it probably needs tons of
nutrients and if you stop there you'd be
correct they do need tons of nutrients
but the soil type is really what throws
a lot of gardeners off they actually
because they're a Brassica like a more
compacted soil not compacted as in like
you could make pottery out of it but
they do like kind of a lack of air gaps
and that's because when you grow
brassicas any Brassica but especially
cabbages they're very prone to what's
known as root not nematodes and root not
nematodes thrive in very aerated very
fertile soil and so what I prefer to do
when I'm growing cabbages is I pick a
spot in my garden that I have not yet
amended with lots of compost I will
still amend it yes I will still amend it
with a little bit but I let my soil kind
of compact over time and that's going to
reduce the air gaps and it's going to
allow me to actually help compact the
soil around the roots which has been
proven by many many different soil
scientists to actually reduce the risk
of root not nematodes by up to 75
percent so what we have done is we
picked a bed that we actually kind of
let kind of slightly degrade again not a
bad thing if you've got
nutrients so we're going to be using a
granular fertilizer to provide the
nutrients we are growing in you know
just aged compost it's just compost over
time will break down and degrade and
start to compact that's what happens
naturally so rather than fluff this bed
up and make it absolutely pristine and
perfect like we would normally we're
going to go in a slightly compacted soil
and so you'll notice this soil has a
slight grayer color to it it's slightly
more Dusty and broken down and that's
very very normal and it's very good for
brassicas so what we're going to do is
we're going to dig a hole
and we're going to plant our plants
okay we're going to talk about lots more
on how to grow these but I want to show
you what we do here get two for the
price of one nice all right so what
we've done we dug our hole
we're going to fertilize
super important we'll talk about
fertilizer in a second and we're going
to plant our cabbage now
it's going to sound crazy but what we
want to do
is we don't want this to be nice and
loose because we don't want to run the
risk of getting root not nematodes what
we're going to do is we're going to take
our fist or our Palm we're going to press
press
we're going to compact that soil
around the plant now you might be
thinking holy cow Luke has absolutely
lost his mind and I in fact haven't this
is how you can grow very successful
cabbages and most soil scientists will
tell you that to grow the best cabbages
you need a soil that's about 50 percent
more compacted than others than other
crops in your garden so whereas a tomato
you plant your plant throw it over top
you want that nice loose soil for good
root development however the the roots
on cabbages are prone to root not
nematodes and that compaction reduces
the air gaps which then reduce the root
not nematode or the risk of root not
nematode I should say and so that is a
step that so many gardeners do not get
and if you take anything from this video
it is compacting the soil now it is very
important to have the right type of soil
because if you do this with clay soil
you're going to completely collapse the
soil it's going to completely suffocate
the roots and it's going to kill the
plant over time with things like root
rot because it's going to hold on to too
much moisture in the soil this soil can compact
compact
right it can compact if I squeeze it
tight but it also still breaks apart
right that's what you want to go for you
want to go for a soil that is fertile
and it is you know loose but it can be
compacted without you know without
killing the without being detrimental
and killing the plant so that's the
first thing is the soil now let's talk
about fertilizing all right so now we're
going to talk about fertilizing which is
really important as well you see all
this growth does not just happen because
of magic it happens because of high
nitrogen now if you remember cabbage is
a leafy crop and the more leaves it
creates the larger and Tighter the head
can be and so we really want to focus on
nitrogen now we are fertilizing with
Trifecta which is a 5 10 4 it's 5 5
nitrogen 10 phosphorus and four percent
potassium it also has beneficial
bacteria and fungi as well as trace
minerals in this fertilizer so it's well
balanced I always recommend going with a
well-balanced fertilizer simply because
it's like a multivitamin you should be
taking a multivitamin yes you might need
iron but it's also not going to hurt you
to get some other vitamins in your diet
as well right so plants need nitrogen
all plants need nitrogen to create leafy
green growth but especially your leafy
crops they focus primarily on nitrogen
so we're going to focus a lot on
nitrogen now you don't have to use
Trifecta you can use something like
blood meal you could use something like
a fish fertilizer a you know chicken
manure anything like that that's going
to have lots and lots of nitrogen in it
because what we want to do is we want to
encourage lots of leafy green growth now
you want to make sure that the
fertilizer you go with is not going to
be so strong that it ends up burning
your plants a lot of gardeners make a
mistake of going with like a urea which
is like a 60 zero zero sixty percent by
weight of just nitrogen it's very harsh
it has a lot of nitrogen but it's so
concentrated and so harsh that it can
end up too much of any good thing can be
a bad thing right so that's why I like
to go with something gentle and well
balanced but it's got a good focus on
those macronutrients to help provide
that plant growth that we're looking for
all right so the next thing we're
talking about is spacing now spacing is
really important for your cabbages
because they're very small now but they
won't be very small for very long
cabbages have absolutely huge leaves and
those leaves will definitely trample and
overshadow other plants they're going to
compete and so what we want to do is we
want to space our cabbages out about 10
inches that I find is a really good
spacing for me you can go a little bit
further than that if you have the space
to afford or if you're concerned about
overcrowding but in my experience with
the varieties that I choose 10 inches is
good enough for me so I'm going to go
out about 10 inches
and then I'm going to have a plant and
then another plant and this way my
plants are close enough to where the uh
the leaves are gently going to be
overlapping each other and they're not
going to be you know really tightly
crowding each other but that overlapping
is good because it's going to shade out
the soil and as we talk about having
shaded soil is really important it's
going to shade out things like weeds
it's going to help to hold moisture in
the soil it's also going to help to cool
the soil down so that the plants are
less stressed during hot days so lots of
benefits to having slight overlapping
leaves just you don't want them having a
boxing match with each other so it's
close but not too close
now you are going to notice that I'm
going from a green
to a purple now why am I doing that well
that's because there has been quite a
good amount of evidence that shows that
by inter cropping different colors of
cabbages actually helps with cabbage
moths now cabbage moths will hone in on
cabbage plants they're those white
little butterflies that you see flying
around they look like little fairy
butterflies but they're moths and they
will lay their eggs on brassicas now by
alternating green and purple green and
purple or green purple and like a like a
whiter cabbage or something like that it
helps to kind of break up that color
variation which in some studies has
shown to prevent things like Cabbage
Moth or at least reduce them so we're
going to be alternating our cabbages and
we've done that for years and I can
really attribute that to a lot of the
reason why we don't have as many Cabbage
Moth problems we've always done that
ever since I read that study I thought well
well
why not so we're going to be doing that
and that's something that really plagues
people but if you find that you're
having problems with cabbage moths the
next thing I want to talk about is pest
deterrin so with pests it's super
important that we control pests before
they become a big problem and with
cabbage moths it can become a really big
problem really fast and so what we're
going to do is we're going to enter crop
green and purple to help prevent things
like Cabbage Moth but then we're also
going to use a product called BT it's
known as bacillus thuregensis and it is
a beneficial bacteria that you spray
onto the leaves of your cabbages and
when it becomes ingested by any type of
caterpillar it also works on tomato
hornworm it works on tent caterpillars
in your fruit trees very very very
effective but it only affects things
like caterpillars and so you're going to
spray that onto your plants
you can even spray it on right now it's
totally fine it's not going to hurt them
at all and then it's going to help
protect them the final form of pest
protection well there's actually two
more uh
next form of past protection is
marigolds now in the beginning we talked
about root not nematodes and how
planting marigolds next to uh next to
other crops can help with root not
nematodes in our intercropping video If
you haven't seen that video go check it
out it's amazing it's absolutely awesome
but this video comes back full circle to
talk about how we want to enter crop to
prevent things like root not nematodes
remember how I said we're compacting the
soil to reduce the risk of root not
nematodes by up to 75 percent well you
can also help to reduce the risk of root
not nematodes by about 50 percent with
the help of marigolds marigolds excrete
a chemical in the soil that helps
prevent things like root not nematodes
and so Michigan State University
actually did a study on this about I
want to say about five seven years ago
or so and uh it was very very effective
so we're going to apply those and we can
plant those in just different parts of
the Garden close proximity to the plants
and that's really going to help out as
well so you can use that and then the
very final form of pest control is with
a product called tool it's just a
basically tutu material that you drape
over your plants and that helps to keep
things like the the Cabbage moths from
getting into the cabbages all right so
now that we talked about pests we talked
about fertilizing we talked about
spacing and soil I really want to touch
on watering so when it comes to Growing
cabbages a lot of people think that they
can be treated just like any other
Brassica now like kale for instance
which planted some kale over here kale
is pretty drought resistant it's a leafy
green much like cabbage but if it
doesn't get rain for a week or two it
kind of just is okay with it it doesn't
love it but it's not really going to
suffer whereas cabbage cabbage needs
lots of regular water why is that well
that's because cabbage forms a really
tight head and that head is all leaves
it's about 95 water each Leaf is you
know in you know independent of one
another but they fold over top and each
other to form a head and the tighter
that head is the the more it's important
you get the water into the plant the
reason why is because cabbage is when
they have a very tight head like that
and they start to to dry out what will
happen is the leaves will shrink they'll
shrivel because they're running out of
water and then what will happen is that
head will kind of create a little air
gap there and that air gap can actually
Steam and that's why cabbage heads will
actually start to form mold or rot in
the center of the cabbage and that's
known as head rot or even like there's
gray mold that can affect them white
mold that can affect them and that's
simply from that air gap and that steam
being created from the shriveling of
leaves so you want to keep those leaves
plump the entire time now I find that
I'll like right now we just planted our
our cabbage they could use a little
water so I'll find I'll Water my
cabbages when they're needed we have
cores in these beds so about 12 inches
down we 10 12 inches down we planted or
we not we didn't plant We buried our
straw bales like we do normally if you
haven't seen those videos go check them
out and that holds moisture in the soil
which is important but when the plants
need water we're going to be watering
I'll find in the summertime that might
be once a week or so it's not that often
but it is very important to check your
soil know when they need water and to
water them when they do need it because
just simply turning a blind eye to it
can actually be a really bad thing for cabbages
cabbages
all right the next step to successfully
growing cabbage is understanding the
sunlight now when it comes to sunlight
and cabbage they really break all the
rules now there's an old saying that
says root shoots and Roots shoots and
fruits needs full sun that's about five
to seven hours whereas leaves needs
partial sun and you might think well I'm
growing these for leaves I'll give them
partial sun three to five hours no
problem they don't need full sun all the
time you'd be wrong
cabbage breaks all those rules cabbage
loves five to seven hours of nice full
direct sun and if you give them more
than that they're not going to complain
this spot right here gets between like
11 and 12 hours of nice full direct sun
and they're going to thrive and the
reason why is because yes they are a
leaf but those leaves the more they can
create the bigger the plant can get the
larger the head can be and so again it
goes back to you know nutrients it goes
back to watering leaves are the most
important thing to a cabbage and so the
bigger the Cabbage gets the more energy
it needs to produce that head and so
giving it nice full sun is so important
now if you only have five hours
absolutely it's going to do fine but any
less than that it is really going to
struggle to form a nice tight head and
that's one thing a lot of gardeners
struggle with is they say my cabbages
are just kind of like forming these
really loose leaves it's not really
forming ahead I look at the picture and
the very first thing I can tell is it's
in the shade I ask how much sun does it
get and they say I don't know maybe
three to four hours well that'll do it
that's exactly why so if you don't get
sunlight right you can get everything
else right and doesn't matter so make
sure you get sunlight right give them
nice full sun direct sun if you can give
it that for five to seven or even more
hours and they're not going to complain
so that is the next most important thing
and the final thing that is really
important to Growing cabbages has
everything to do with the season that
you plant it all right the final thing I
want to talk about is the seasons in
which you're planting your cabbage and
the seasons between varieties so if that
doesn't make a whole lot of sense let me
break this down so when it comes to your
planting Seasons you can plant in two
different seasons of the gardening
season you can plant in the spring for a
summer Harvest and you can plant in the
late summer for a fall Harvest and we'll
be doing that basically right now we
have our our cabbage in the ground and
it's going to be ready to harvest right
around the early to maybe mid part of
July but then there's gonna be a gap of
time where we're not going to be
planting anything because it'll be too
hot and then around probably late August
very early September we're going to put
seeds in pots if not directly in the
ground and we're going to be growing
those for a late fall Harvest basically
late fall almost basically early winter
there'll be snow on the ground but we're
going to be harvesting these beautiful
heads of cabbage it'll be one of the
last things we're pulling out of the
garden and it's a very simple way to
grow two successions of cabbage in one
growing season so that's kind of
seasonally how we plant cabbage but then
there's also seasonality between
varieties as well so there is known as a
early season cabbage a mid-season
cabbage and a late cabbage and that
basically just coincides with how many
days it takes for the Cabbage to form a
head and so you have early cabbage
varieties like the Copenhagen Market
cabbage that's an early variety you have
a Wakefield cabbage right which is a
mid-season variety you have a uh it
could be like a late Flat Dutch cabbage
right that's a later variety early
season varieties will mature in right
around 65 to 70 days mid-season
varieties are going to be right around
70 to 75 days and then a later variety
is can be right around 80 to 85 days and
so that also can kind of help you out
when you're picking the varieties that
you want to choose because right now
basically the world is our oyster we can
plant early mid and late season cabbages
however as we get closer to planting
fall cabbage we're not going to be
planting late season cabbages because we
don't have enough time to get those to
fully mature and form ahead so we're
going to be exclusively planting our
early season cabbages and knowing this
and having this information in your back
pocket can really help you out to not
only maximizing how much cabbage you're
growing but having more success growing
cabbage so those are all the things that
I wanted to condense into today's video
I hope you guys enjoyed I hope you
learned something new if you did make
sure to hit the like button subscribe if
you haven't already and let me know in
the comments box down below if you want
to see other Mi Gardener redos and what
you'd like to see redone we've done over
1500 videos and I can safely say that in
the 11 years I've been doing this the
information has stayed the same or very
close to the same but the video quality
and my public speaking has improved
exponentially so so uh definitely let me
know what you'd like to see redone I
don't ever want to have information that
you don't want to watch because it's too
terrible of quality and so just let me
know and I'll be happy to do that so as
always this is Luke from the Mi Gardener
Channel reminding you to grow bigger
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