By Jennifer Poindexter
Do you like to eat cabbage?
It seems to be a vegetable that people either embrace or have a deep aversion to. If you fall under the category of “embracing cabbage,” you’re in the right place.
I’m not only going to encourage you to keep eating this vegetable but also to try your hand at growing it. There are a few common mistakes people make when raising this crop.
However, I’m going to help you by sharing what those mistakes are and also how you can avoid making them.
If you like the idea of growing cabbage, here are the top missteps you’ll want to avoid while embracing this new plant in your garden:
1. Too Much or Too Little
Cabbage is a plant that’s all about consistency. It isn’t a vegetable you can plant in the garden and forget until harvest time.
Therefore, ensure you’re ready to commit to the regular care of cabbage prior to putting forth the effort to grow it. Watering is one of the most important ways you can show care to your cabbage crop.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
You can avoid inconsistent watering by keeping the ground evenly moist. You shouldn’t avoid watering, but you also don’t want the ground oversaturated.
Practicing deep watering is a great way to ensure your crops receive the right amount of moisture. This means watering your plants, fewer days of the week, for longer periods of time.
Mulch around your cabbage plants, too. This will keep the ground moist for longer periods and provide consistency to your cabbage crop.
2. Forgetting to Feed Your Plants
Plants need to eat just as humans do. The only difference is they receive their nutrients through different sources.
Therefore, it’s up to you to ensure they receive the necessary nutrients. Otherwise, your plants won’t thrive in the garden.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
Cabbage plants are heavy feeders. Therefore, you must ensure they’re fed regularly with a balanced fertilizer.
The plants need nitrogen for their green foliage and calcium to ensure the plant can soak up water. Without these key nutrients, your plants will probably struggle.
3. Ignoring Weeds
I get it. Weeding is the worst job when raising a garden. As much as I love growing a garden, this is the part I enjoy the least.
However, it’s vital that you stay on top of weeds. If you allow them to take over your growing area, your plants will suffer.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
Weeds are harmful to cabbage. They create a home for pests and diseases. Plus, they steal nutrients from your plants while decreasing airflow around them.
It’s best to keep weeds at bay by placing mulch around the base of your crop. Any persistent weeds should be pulled by hand.
4. Not Practicing Crop Rotation
Crop rotation is important in the garden. When you leave your crops in the same place year after year, the same pests can find your crop. The pests which infested your crops last year will know exactly where to go this year.
The same can be said for disease. If disease, which impacts a specific crop, is in the soil from a previous year it will still be there the following year. This can cause a continuous cycle of harm to your vegetables.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
You can avoid this mistake by practicing crop rotation. Cabbage can be rotated back to its original spot one time every three years.
It should also be rotated in places where other cole crops haven’t been planted. These plants all draw similar pests which could harm your cabbage crop.
5. Damping Off
Damping off is a fungal disease. It attacks seedlings, and if your cabbage seedlings contract it they won’t survive.
Therefore, it’s vital to be proactive when raising seedlings. Understanding how to deter damping off is the only way your plants will survive.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
You can avoid damping off by ensuring you keep the soil consistently moist without oversaturating it. Misting soil with a spray bottle is an effective way to water seedlings as they grow.
It’s also important to make sure the soil is warm. Cold, wet soil is a perfect breeding ground for disease.
Sprinkling cinnamon over the soil is also a great way to deter fungal diseases from forming in the soil. Take these basic steps to deter damping off in your seedlings.
6. Ignoring Pests and Diseases
It’s never a good idea to ignore pests and diseases in your garden. You should walk through your garden regularly to perform a quick check of anything which might be transpiring.
Check to see if you have any unwanted visitors, setting up shop, in your grow space. It’s important to check for diseases on your cabbage, as well.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
You can avoid this mistake by ensuring you check your garden on a daily basis. If you notice signs of disease, treat them immediately. Diseases which commonly impact cabbage are downy mildew and clubroot.
Pests which frequently impact cabbages are cutworms, cabbage maggots, and aphids. Most of which can be treated by using an insecticide on your plants.
7. Planting Too Soon
We all get excited and jump the gun on occasion. However, you’ll want to restrain yourself when planting cabbage.
Gardening season can be exciting, but if you plant cabbage too soon, you’ll pay a price for it in the long run.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
You should plant your cabbage plants a week or two before the final frost during spring. During the fall, plant them when the temperatures are around 60- to 70-degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s important to protect the plants from any frost which might occur. This will help prevent early flowering of the plants.
8. Cabbage Heads Won’t Form
There are a few mistakes which can cause this problem to occur. However, it shouldn’t be a shock because anytime you grow a plant which heads, there are times when the heads won’t form.
It can leave the gardener feeling exasperated as to why this is happening. Be sure that you aren’t guilty of any of the following things when raising cabbage.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
There are two main reasons why heads won’t form on a cabbage plant. The first reason is because the cabbage plants are overcrowded. Ensure you leave two feet of space between each plant, so they can form heads.
The next reason is there isn’t enough moisture in the soil. If the soil is left dry, or isn’t consistently moist, it won’t encourage growth in your cabbage crop.
9. Not Providing the Basics
One of the worst things you can do, when raising any plant, is not providing the basics. Every plant has basic growing conditions they need to thrive.
If you don’t supply them, how can you expect a plant to grow properly? Ensure cabbage plants have what they need to grow well in your growing area.
How to Avoid this Mistake:
Cabbage plants should be grown in full sun and receive at least six to eight hours of light during each day.
They should also be planted in well-draining soil. Cabbage plants need water, but they also don’t thrive when left standing in soggy conditions. Understand what your cabbage crop needs and supply it.
This concludes the mistakes many gardeners make when raising cabbage. This isn’t an overly complicated vegetable to grow.
However, you can’t plant the cabbage and forget about it. By providing care and staying alert to potential threats, you should have an abundant harvest on your hands.
More About Growing Cabbage
https://extension.umn.edu/vegetables/growing-cabbage
https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1611
https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/cabbage-in-the-garden
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