Cabbage is called the third bread. It is valued for its nutritional value, dietary healing properties. Cabbage is not afraid of frost, it can be grown even in the northern regions in open ground. The greatest demand is for white cabbage. How to grow the queen of the northern fields, so that she is, "in a peasant saying, sounded in the old days during planting," big-bellied, not shaded "?
Varieties and hybrids
When choosing seeds, it is necessary to determine the shelf life of heads of cabbage and decide how they will be used - for fresh consumption or for pickling.
“Transfer F”, “Dumas F”, “Malachite F”, “Dawn F”, “Cossack F”, “Dawn”, “June” - early ripening hybrids and varieties. Ripening period - 40-60 days after transplanting. Heads of cabbage are intended for fresh consumption. During ripening, they do not crack. Plants are resistant to pathogens of the "black leg" and keel.
“Menza F”, “Jubilee F”, “Midor F”, “Glory 1305”, “Dobrovodskaya” - mid-season cabbage, suitable for storage and pickling. From planting seedlings to harvesting takes 90-120 days.
“Kryumon F”, “Kryumon”, “Geneva F”, “Aros F”, “Turkis”, “Amager” - late-ripening hybrids and varieties. Ripening period - from 120 to 140 days. Heads of cabbage can be stored for a long time, suitable for pickling.
White cabbage: planting and care
Dry seeds for fifteen minutes are poured with water, warmed to a temperature of 50 about C. Then they are placed in cold water for a minute. Then, draining it, the seeds are soaked for 12 hours in a solution of any complex fertilizer: half a teaspoon of fertilizer is taken in a glass of water. After that, the seeds are washed with cold water and placed on the middle shelf of the refrigerator for a day. These procedures are needed to accelerate their germination and increase resistance to cold. After hardening, the seeds are dried and begin to sow in a pre-prepared school filled with special soil. Soil composition: equal volumes of turf land, peat and sand. One tablespoon of superphosphate granules and three tablespoons of wood ash are mixed into a bucket of soil. For growing seedlings, you should not take garden soil or humus - they may contain pathogens of which white cabbage is afraid.
How to grow seedlings? In shallow boxes, in grooves with a depth of not more than one centimeter, seeds are sown at a distance of also one centimeter from each other. For the occurrence of gatherings, for three to four days, the box is placed on the windowsill, where the air temperature is 18-20 ° C. The box with shoots is transferred to a cool (not higher than 8 ° C) and bright place so that the seedlings do not stretch out. Ten-day-old seedlings are dived into cups with a diameter and depth of at least 8 centimeters with the same soil, previously spilled with a solution of potassium permanganate (1 gram of crystals is taken on a bucket of water). Seedlings are buried to cotyledon leaves. Two or three days, until the seedlings take root, the temperature suitable for it is 17-18 ° C. Gradually, the temperature is reduced to 3-4 ° C. After twenty days, three leaves should appear on healthy seedlings. Plants with 4-5 leaves, not including cotyledons, are planted on a permanent site. It is necessary 15 days before planting to begin hardening of seedlings with light and low temperature (5-6 ° C) - seedlings are carried out in the air.
Sowing dates: for early varieties - from mid-March, for medium late and late varieties - from April 10.
Proper watering (with warm water) with ventilation, foliar top dressing (in the seedling stage - 2 times) with complex fertilizer with microelements (watering from a watering can on leaves) is what small white cabbage likes.
How to grow it in a permanent place? Abundant watering with warm water (18 ° C) in the mornings or evenings every three days for two weeks in a row at half a bucket of water per square meter of soil, and then once a week in a bucket of water per square meter of soil. Abundantly watered cabbage when tying forks. Leaving includes obligatory cultivation of row-spacing once a week after watering or rain, as well as hilling up to 20 days after planting and every 10 days thereafter. You should treat the cabbage with top dressing during the growing season four times. The first top dressing is with a mullein solution (0.5: 10), which is poured under the root. After ten days, the plants are fed with the same mullein solution with the addition of one tablespoon of solution or crystallin. A third top dressing is necessary for late cabbage in June: two tablespoons of superphosphate and a tablet of trace elements are dissolved in 10 liters of water per square meter of soil. In August, each square meter of the plot with late cabbage is fed a nitrophos (one tablespoon per 10 liters of water).
How to Grow White Cabbage Healthy
Under the culture you need to take an open, level place. It should be remembered about crop rotation, the best predecessors are root crops, garlic, onions, cucumbers, legumes and grains. Cabbage is planted only after five years (there will be no keel - a dangerous disease). Seedlings are planted in cloudy weather and the first week for the plant is protected by burdock leaves, coniferous branches. It is very useful to spray young cabbage from a watering can.
About cabbage pests and their control
Many pests can suffer from white cabbage. How to grow it, and to protect plants from diseases and pests is not too difficult. But if this is not done, the crop may be destroyed in the bud.
To combat the “black leg” - with this disease, a young seedling has a thinner leg at the soil level, and the stalk gets dark - you should stop watering for a while, treat the damage with a solution of manganese and sprinkle it with ash or chalk.
Against a cruciferous flea, the proximity of cabbage with tomatoes, onions, and garlic will help. You can get rid of this pest by treating the plants with infusion of tobacco, ash, garlic, tomato tops and potatoes. On a bucket of water heated to a temperature of 25 ° C, you need to take a glass of garlic, tops scrolled in a meat grinder, a glass of ash and smoking tobacco, stir, strain, pour a tablespoon of liquid soap and immediately start spraying the plants.
Cabbage flies will help get rid of tobacco infusion. 200 grams of tobacco and a tablespoon of soap are poured with a bucket of hot water. Then you should cool the solution and spill the soil around the plants. You can sprinkle the soil with a deterrent mixture of ash and tobacco dust (100 grams of each substance) with the addition of ground red pepper, ground (1 teaspoon). Immediately after this, it is necessary to loosen the soil.
Against snails and slugs - those who like to eat juicy leaves - from time to time they apply pollination of the soil around plants through a gauze bag with wood ash, to which pepper (black or red), dry mustard, and small salt are well mixed. Pollinate plants should be in the heat, after pollination, immediately loosen the soil. After five days, this procedure should be repeated.
To get rid of aphids, it is necessary to treat the lower side of the leaves with infusion of tobacco dust with ash, mustard with the addition of one tablespoon of liquid soap. But if the aphid has bred, in the evening the plants should be treated with “Karbofos” (two tablespoons of the substance per bucket of water) and immediately cover the bed with a film for two hours.
Dangerous butterflies - Cabbage white and Cabbage scoop. The first in the afternoon, the second at night lay eggs on the back of the leaves, from which green caterpillars emerge. A daily collection of eggs and caterpillars is required. For a while, they cover the cabbage bed with lutrasil. An effective remedy against caterpillars is the Fury preparation, which plants are sprayed with.
With mucosal bacteriosis, heads of cabbage become mucous and rot. Prevention of the disease consists in irrigation with a solution of potassium permanganate and dusting with ash during growth to get rid of pests - carriers of putrefactive bacteria.
When watering with cold water or poor ventilation, cabbage seedlings can be affected by downy mildew. At the first signs of the disease (yellowish oily spots with a powdery coating), plants should be sprayed with copper sulfate solution (take a tablespoon of vitriol and a tablespoon of liquid soap in a bucket of water).
Spraying with the drug "Topaz" - according to the instructions. The action of Intavir, Fundazol, Oksihom and biological preparations Barrier, Barrier, and Arrow are directed against diseases and numerous pests. The Topaz preparation will also help protect cabbage. When using these substances, you must follow the instructions that accompany them.