Do cabbage plants produce more than one head?

QUESTION: Do cabbage plants produce more than one head? Is there a way to harvest more cabbage? -Tommy W.

ANSWER: Cabbage plants do not produce multiple heads on their own. However, with this simple trick, you can double your cabbage harvest with every plant you grow and get your plants to produce several mini cabbages in the place of your original plant.

When harvesting your main cabbage head, leave just enough of the bottom leaves behind to keep the plant going. If you cut below the lowest leaves, the remaining bits will quickly shrivel and die, so be sure to leave behind enough green to be a viable surface for sprouting a second crop.

Treat the remaining greens as if they were a brand new plant. Cultivate it, water it, and work in some nutrient-rich manure into the first inch of soil, taking care not to injure the roots in the process. If executed correctly, in just under a week, you will start to see some small sprouts beginning to shoot up around the outer edge of the main head’s stub. Keep on cultivating it as if it was a new plant, and before long, the little sub-heads will expand to the size of a fist. There will not be just one new head, but several, usually three or four, but sometimes as many as six smaller heads will grow up around the rim of the original plant’s stub.

In total, the new sub-heads will provide as much food as the original cabbage head, but with a delicious difference. The cores of your new mini cabbages will be pale green, almost white, leafy and very tender. The outer leaves will be a darker green, but even those will be tender and tasty. In fact, these tiny cabbages are actually preferred by many gardeners to the larger main heads because of their extra tender texture and mild flavor.