Cabbage is the vegetable that is present on our table throughout the year. Almost all summer residents grow it on their plots. But cabbage has one salient feature. It is susceptible to all kinds of diseases and pests. The cabbage grown industrially is unconditionally very beautiful. But to achieve this result, it is treated with the strongest chemicals. If you want to get an exceptionally healthy vegetable, you can grow it yourself. In our article we want to talk about how to plant cabbage for seedlings and how to take care of it in the future to get a good harvest.
Seed selection
You can get good seedlings of cabbage only from quality seeds. In our climate, culture is usually grown from seedlings. To obtain it, you must purchase high-quality seeds. It is better to buy them in specialized stores. For planting, it is better to take zoned varieties. They usually have greater resistance to diseases and pests. In addition, they are prepared for sowing and do not require additional processing.
When choosing seeds, pay attention to:
- Variety name, ripening period (late, early or middle).
- The date of sowing, as well as the period of planting in open ground.
- Recommended region for growing.
- The timing of the harvest.
Usually gardeners prefer to grow cabbage of all ripening periods. It is quite convenient.
Seedling Pots
Cabbage has very delicate foliage, so you need to think about how to grow seedlings, so that in the future the least way to injure it. The following options are possible:
- Without peking.
- In the drawers.
- With a pick.
- In separate containers, etc.
Cabbage seedlings can be grown without a pick. For this, plants are planted one at a time in separate pots. However, picking cultivation in some cases has its advantages. For example, if the seedlings are planted in the early stages, but due to bad weather conditions it cannot be transplanted to a permanent place. In this case, picking slows down the growth of plants. Seedlings of cabbage become more squat. In the future, it is easier to transfer the transplant to the open ground.
Soil preparation
Cabbage seeds for seedlings must be sown in a light substrate, in which there is a good supply of nutrients. The soil should be sufficiently moisture-resistant. You can purchase suitable soil in the store or cook it yourself.
If you decide to prepare the soil for sowing cabbage for seedlings yourself, then it can be obtained from the following components:
- Soddy or leafy land as a basis. You can also use two options for soil, mixing them in equal proportions.
- From biohumas or peat.
- Sand, perlite and sawdust will help make the soil easier.
All components are mixed in a ratio of 1: 2: 1.
However, there are simpler options for obtaining good soil. You can mix one part of garden soil with 20 parts of turf soil. They also mix one part of sand, lime and ash (a source of micro and macro elements).
If you purchase a ready-made substrate in the store, you can immediately use it for sowing. As for self-prepared soil, it must certainly be decontaminated by calcination, dressing, steaming or freezing.
At the last stage, fertilizers are necessarily applied to the soil. On average, ten kilograms of weight adds from 15 to 20 grams of ammonium nitrate or urea, granular superphosphate (20 g), lime (25 g) and potassium sulfate (10 g). If you do not have these fertilizers, then you can add nitroammophoska (30 g).
Ten days before sowing, the soil must be treated with antifungal agents - Fitosporin, Gamair or Alirin. Well-prepared soil will allow you to get healthy seedlings.
When to plant cabbage for seedlings?
Let's determine the timing of sowing seeds. Early varieties should be sown in late February or early March, medium varieties from late April to late April, late varieties throughout April.
In general, it is worth saying that the sowing period largely depends on the variety of culture, lighting, maturity and climate of the region. First of all, you need to focus on the length of the growing season of the culture. Early varieties, for example, are harvested after 90-120 days, late varieties are 160-180 days, medium varieties are 150-170 days.
All species can be sown simultaneously or do it in stages with a gap of 10-12 days.
Sowing seeds
Knowing when to plant cabbage for seedlings, you can move the timing a little, depending on the circumstances. For planting seeds, you can use disposable cups, peat pots, boxes. If you decide to grow seedlings of cabbage at home in boxes, then the seeds must be sown in rows, leaving a distance of about three centimeters between them.
When using individual pots, it is enough to put two seeds in the center of each. If the seedlings are successful, and two plants appear, a weaker seedling can be removed. Seeds are placed to a depth of one centimeter. After sowing, the pots are covered with a film, creating greenhouse conditions.
Temperature mode
After the cabbage has been planted for seedlings, it is necessary to create a suitable temperature regime, and it will be different at different periods of seedling development:
- It is recommended that in the first five to seven days in a greenhouse maintain a temperature of about +10 degrees.
- After emergence, the temperature can be increased to +15 - +17 degrees.
Of course, not everyone can create such a regime for cabbage seedlings.
Picking seedlings
We have already figured out when to plant cabbage. In the future, after emergence of plants, it is necessary to dive. This is done when the seedlings reach two weeks of age. Seedlings are transplanted into separate cassettes or small pots. Their size directly depends on the variety. When transplanting plants, you need to pin the root, and then place it in the ground. Picked seedlings are kept at a temperature of +15 degrees in the daytime, at night it can be lower.
Protection of seedlings from pests
In order to protect the seedlings from diseases, it is necessary to irrigate “Fitosporin”. The soil can be dried with mulch or dry sand, this will protect the roots from decay.
Cabbage seedlings can also be affected by pests: cabbage aphids, cruciferous fleas, cabbage moths, cabbage whites, cabbage scoops, etc. Fitoverm and Intavir biological products can be used to control pests. Moths and leaf-eating can be managed with Bitoxibacillin, Dendrobacillin and Lepidocide. Chemicals are undesirable for cabbage, as they linger inside the head of cabbage.
Watering and lighting seedlings
Seedlings of cabbage need sunlight. If the weather is cloudy, then the seedlings will have to be illuminated. Lack of light causes a delay in the development of plants. For illumination, you can use a fluorescent lamp.
During the entire period of growing seedlings of early cabbage or late soil should be moist. But it is also impossible to prevent fluid stagnation. Waterlogging of the soil is dangerous especially at low temperatures. In this case, a still weak root system is easily affected by rot. It is easiest to moisten the substrate with a spray gun. After seedlings it is necessary to water moderately once a week.
Preparation of beds
Before planting seedlings in open ground, it is necessary to prepare the beds. The area where the planting is planned, it is necessary to dig, removing weeds. If the soil was dug up for the winter, it is still necessary to re-excavate it. Clods of earth need to be carefully broken so that there are no heavy breasts left. To dig a plot, you can use not only a shovel, but also a pitchfork.
Planting seedlings in open ground
Cabbage is planted at a great distance from each other. Between the bushes it is necessary to maintain a distance of 50 to 70 centimeters. Wells for the plant should be deep enough, up to 20 centimeters. They are best formed with a shovel. In each hole before planting, add humus. But fresh manure is better not to use. We also add wood ash to the holes (approximately a matchbox). Next, fill the pits with water. For each well, it is worth spending up to a liter of water. It is very important for plants that the soil is moist; surface watering cannot provide enough moisture. Next, we plant seedlings, pre-treating it with "Kornevin." Root stimulator helps plants to take root. During planting, trauma to the roots simply cannot be avoided, but thanks to Kornevin, losses can be minimized.
When transplanting, plants are taken out of the pots, and together with a lump of land they are lowered into the pits. From above, the roots are covered with earth and rammed the soil. In the event that your seedlings are in peat pots, it is planted in the ground directly with them. In this case, the root system is practically not injured.
In the process of growing home seedlings, it is very important to thin out the plants on time. Cabbage is planted one bush per hole, so when diving, it is necessary to plant single seedlings in individual pots. Otherwise, when transplanting into the soil, you will have to separate the plants from each other, and this leads to excessive trauma to the root system.
Cabbage seedlings must be well watered, forming holes near each plant. Watering is carried out at the rate of one liter per bush. Water is poured carefully so as not to blur the roots. After watering, part of the seedlings may fall on their side. In this case, you will have to fix it. After an hour, the soil near the plants can be mulched, this will prevent the appearance of a crust.
Care after planting in the ground
After seedlings are planted in open ground, all care is reduced to regular watering. You can apply dressing after the appearance of 6-7 leaves. For such purposes, it is better to use organic fertilizers - humus or manure. The use of chemistry is not advisable, since all harmful substances accumulate in the head of the plant.
In addition to manure, nettle can be used as an organic fertilizer. Five kilograms of grass is placed in a barrel and poured with water from above. After the stinging nettle, water the cabbage. Such dressings should be enough to get a good harvest. After each harvest, it is advisable to loosen the soil around the bushes.
It is necessary to start cultivating plants during the formation of heads of cabbage. At this time, the foliage begins to rise from the ground. In order not to erode the roots, the earth is raked to the bushes. In principle, cabbage is unpretentious, but needs abundant regular watering.
Chinese cabbage
Peking cabbage, like any other, is a long day plant. For fruiting, she needs daylight hours of more than 13 hours. In this case, the plant is actively developing. To obtain seedlings of Beijing cabbage, seeds can be sown twice a year - in early spring, as well as in mid-summer. The plant tolerates cold snap -4 degrees. However, under any bad weather conditions, Beijing cabbage gives an arrow, but does not head out. Sowing seedlings in the spring, you can get a crop in the first half of summer.
The agricultural technology of Beijing cabbage is no different from any other variety. If in the spring the seeds are sown in pots for seedlings, then summer crops can be carried out directly into the ground. As a rule, in the summer, cabbage is sown in July. Three grains are placed in each hole to a depth of three centimeters. Between the beds leave a distance of 40 to 50 centimeters. After the appearance of seedlings, you can leave one, the most powerful plant. Bushes spud three weeks after sowing.
You need to water Beijing cabbage regularly, but do not overmoisten the soil.
Cauliflower
To get the crop, you need to grow cauliflower seedlings. In open ground, seeds are sown extremely rarely. For a constant harvest throughout the summer, you can sow the seeds three times with an interval of 15-20 days. Early varieties must be grown in greenhouses, greenhouses or at home. Whatever variety of cauliflower you grow, in cases of lowering the temperature of the plant, they require shelter.
In general, the most successful are medium grades. Planting cauliflower seedlings is no different from planting other varieties. The first shoots appear after five days. Dive them at the age of 8-10 days.
Some gardeners sow seeds directly in the open ground in April, but at the same time equip a greenhouse on top to protect seedlings from the cold. In warm weather, plants must be ventilated and opened.
If you want to grow seedlings at home, then you will need 45 days. The main distinguishing feature of cauliflower from white cabbage is the exacting diet. This point should be taken into account even at the stage of growing seedlings. If plants lack some trace elements even at the stage of home care, then no matter how wonderful the further conditions are, they will no longer be able to get a good harvest. Bushes form ugly ugly heads. Especially acute plants respond to a lack of molybdenum and boron. Gardeners note that getting a good harvest of cauliflower is much more difficult than white cabbage. The first is more demanding on trace elements. The slightest deviations lead to the appearance of ugly ovaries, and after all, beautiful heads are appreciated, first of all. For this reason, the cultivation of this type of cabbage is associated with the constant introduction of fertilizing.
Dangerous pests
Whatever planting variety you choose, in open ground, plants are threatened by pests such as butterfly whites. They quickly settle on the bushes, turning their foliage into a mesh consisting of only holes. They may not be able to destroy the whole head of cabbage, but they can spoil its appearance and upper layers. How to deal with whites? Specialty stores currently offer many chemicals that help cope with pests. However, cabbage is a crop for which it is better not to use chemistry, especially in the later stages, when the harvest is suitable.
In this case, you can recommend using garlic. From it you can prepare an infusion that will help scare away pests. Three heads of garlic are crushed and poured with liters of liquid. Then the solution is kept for about a week, filtered and sprayed with plants. This simple method is very effective in combating butterflies and caterpillars.
Instead of an afterword
From all of the above, we can conclude that cabbage is a fairly unpretentious crop for growing in household plots. Knowing the basics of agricultural technology, you can get a good crop of vegetables. For growing early and medium varieties, it is better to use seedlings. Growing seedlings at home is not a complicated matter. Knowing when to plant cabbage for seedlings, and the basic rules of care, you can get a good harvest. Using seeds of varieties with different ripening periods, you can get a cabbage crop throughout the summer, it is worth starting with white varieties. They are easier to care for and less capricious. Proper care will allow you to get a decent harvest.
Even an inexperienced gardener who can take only the first steps in his path can cope with planting cabbage. We hope that our article will help you deal with some of the nuances of obtaining seedlings of the most popular vegetable.