Cabbage

Friday 30 December 2011

Cabbage has always done well here. Some folks here in Galena have even grown cabbages up to 40 pounds. They store well in the root cellar, too. We spend all winter eating them in cole slaws, Oriental mixes, and surimi and salmon salad.

Summer 2011

A great cabbage year. The only thing I did wrong was during the transplanting process - I should have hardened them off much better, so some of the seedlings died after they were put out. The moose also demolished one of the OS Hybrids, which was a bummer.

The Bartalo variety from Veseys Seeds was wonderful - a beautiful head, large and luxuriant. The Melissas were also good this year. The Early Copenhagen is this huge beach-ball sized globe of densely-packed cabbage. The January King also came out well. The Storage variety looked a little elongated and therefore odd, and the heads were not very dense. Not a keeper.

The most beautiful was the Deadon variety from Johnny's Seeds. Almost like the January King, but darker and more dense.

Summer 2010

First, a small problem. There were no OS Hybrid seeds to be had, anywhere. Apparently there was a shortage of some sort somewhere. Finally, our good friend Larry got hold of some starts and gave us two of them. One grew into a cabbage that looked like an OS Hybrid. The other one turned into this tiny headless thing that looked more mutant than cabbage. Hmmm. My "giant cabbage" came in around 20 pounds.

Of course, the Melissa turned out great - they always come through. The Storage #4 take some getting used to - the heads are flat and oblong, but they're storing very, very well. The Early Acre also looked beautiful at the end of the season.

As with the other cole crops, the soil around the cabbage is covered with old newspaper and grass clippings. This helps their growth a lot. As usual, I planted them too close together, causing some of the cabbages to get crowded later in the year.

Previous seasons

I wish that I'd kept track of the various varieties over the years, as I have tried plenty. Cabbage tends to be tough as nails. The first year we moved to the house, I mowed down the long grass in the unkempt back yard, dug a few holes with a shovel, and planted the cabbage starts directly into ground, surrounding the plants with plastic sheets. By the end of the season, the chickweed under the plastic was huge and the cabbage was beautiful.