Cabbage
Cabbage head is, in fact, an overgrown apical bud. Cabbage is white and red. Red cabbage is used only for salads. It is not sour, it does not cook soup, it is not used for filling in pies.
Selection of variety
Early-ripening varieties of cabbage( 70-100 days from shoots to ready) for fresh consumption: Dietmarshcher Fruer, June, Kazachok F1, Skorospelaya, Transfer F1, Fuerte F1, Bronco F1.The earliest hybrids that ripen in just 60 days: Surprise F1, Parel F1, Bella F1, Explosion F1, Flash F1, Fluffy F1.Among the early cabbage there are those that are well kept for 2-3 months. These are hybrids of Ramada F1, Perfect F1, and the hybrids Leopold F1 and Eton F1 are stored for up to 4 months, but they do not suck.
Medium-early varieties( 115-125 days) Golden hectare, Stakhanovka is consumed fresh;Krautman F1, Sechuri F1, Satellite F1, Dialog F1 are suitable for sourcing and eating fresh.
Medium-ripened varieties( 130-150 days) Belarusian, Krautkayzer F1, Discovery F1, Upton F1, Losinoostrovskaya, Nadezhda, Rodolfo F1, Glory, Taininskaya, Rinda F1, Zosia, Zalp, Kukharka, Raspasol hybrids are suitable both for fresh consumption,and for souring. Preservation in fresh form for about 3 months. To sour the unsurpassed by the taste qualities is still a grade of Glory.
Average maturing maturity is universal. From it you can cook soup and borscht, ferment it for quick use, make cabbage rolls.
Medium-late varieties( 140-160 days) Blizzard, Gift, Rusinovka, Harvest, Erdero F1, Volley F1, Cook F1, Zosia F1, Rasposol F1 are suitable for souring and drinking fresh, but not for long( more than 3-4 months) storage. Hybrids Lennox F1, Bartolo F1, Counter F1, Saratoga F1 and Shelton F1 are subject to long-term storage up to 5 months.
Late-ripening varieties( 150-170 days) are suitable for long-term storage for more than 5-6 months. For fresh use, they are too coarse, they should only be drunk for 3-4 months after harvesting. However, they are suitable for cabbage soup and pies immediately after harvesting. The best varieties are Dowervice F1, Amager, Moscow late, Ramco F1, Ulyana F1, Favorite F1.
The early hybrid Primo F1( about 80 days), medium hybrids of Maestro F1, Ranchero F1( 90-100 days), mid-late Lexro F1( 120-130 days) are of interest from red varieties.
Terms of sowing cabbage
Both cabbages are cold-resistant, they grow through seedlings. Growing cabbage seedlings in the apartment is a matter of little prospect, because she loves light, coolness, high humidity, and in our apartments it is dark, for cabbage it's too hot and dry. Seedlings grow weak, stretch out and even lie down. Of this seedling, of course, nothing good will grow.
It is better to sow cabbage a little later directly to the greenhouse, but only cover it with additional film. If you can not cover the greenhouse before May, then make a small greenhouse on a sunny spot and sow not only cabbage, but everything you need.
The best time to plant cabbage for seedlings is in early March-April, depending on the region. For the Northwest, in particular, this is the beginning of April. Frosts follow the soil. If you put a box with seeded seedlings on a stool or on a board that hangs on rope hinges at the end of the greenhouse, like a swing, the seedlings will be out of reach for frost. Similarly, but a little later, you can sow beets, cauliflower, zucchini and cucumber, flower sprouts. Boxes with seeded seedlings should be wrapped with a film to preserve heat and moisture.
Early white cabbage is usually recommended for seedlings in February-March. The maturation period is about 90-100 days after emergence. The area of nutrition in early cabbage is small - 30 x 30 cm. In June it is ready, so it is often called June cabbage. For an unheated greenhouse in the northern regions this term is unrealistic. And later to sow the early cabbage does not make any sense, so I do not recommend you to grow early cabbage in the Northwest. Moreover, it is suitable only for salads and for consumption in a blanched form, soup from it is not boiled and especially it does not scum. For salads, it is much easier to grow leafy cabbage, for example, Pak-choi, Peking or Chinese.
White cabbage of medium maturity is usually recommended for seedlings at the end of April( or early May directly into the soil).The maturity period is about 120 days, the feeding area is 45 x 45 cm. The cabbage of medium maturity is universal, that is, it is suitable for salads, sour cream, used for pies and cabbage soup. But for a long time it is not stored.
Despite the recommendations, I do not grow cabbage in a pure way - because of the cruciferous flea, which hibernates in the soil and can completely devour young shoots. Sheltering the crops with lutrasilom from the flea does not save, on the contrary, under the lutrasil the soil heats up quickly, and the flea leaves the soil earlier than usual( at a temperature of 8 degrees).
Late cabbage varieties are recommended to plant on seedlings in early April, since the maturation period is 150-160 days. It requires a large area of food, so the seedlings should be planted in the soil according to the scheme of 60 x 60 cm. You can sow late cabbage in late April, because in regions with a long and warm autumn it can be removed even in the middle of October, after frosts. Cabbage varieties are designed for long-term storage. Immediately after harvesting, they are unsuitable for souring, because they have a long process of accumulation of sugars, so it is possible to sour late varieties only after December. If you hurry, the cabbage will be soft and tasteless.
add to Wishlist
How to distinguish heads of late sort from medium late or middle maturity when buying cabbage for souring? If the leaves are white, thick, juicy, cabbage, suitable for leaven at once. If the leaves are thin, green, close to each other, it is cabbage for storage, and it can be fermented only 2-3 months after harvesting.
Growing cabbage seedlings
In a box with a depth of at least 7 cm or directly into the soil in a greenhouse, sow the seeds in grooves with a depth of at least 2 cm. Cabbage seeds are large, they are easy to decompose at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other. Soil must be neutral, moist and nutritious. You can prepare the soil for the box from a mixture of peat( one bucket), sand( half a bucket) and ash( liter pot).Stir well, fill the box, pour water. Make grooves and spread out the seeds in them, fill them with soil, and compact the soil after sowing.
So that the soil does not lose heat and moisture, crops should be covered with a film. Since the emergence of shoots, the film should be removed and cabbage should be watered regularly, but not filled, so that the soil is constantly moderately moist. The main thing at this stage is the neutral reaction of the soil.
In addition, excessive stretching of the subclavian knee should not be tolerated. Often this happens not only because of poor illumination, but also because of too thick shoots. The seedlings are tight, and it begins to stretch. At this point, the lower part of the stem may dry up. In this case, a black leg can not be avoided, since the seedling will weaken and will not be able to withstand the disease. It is better to remove a part of plants with thickened sowings, less hassle will be later, and the remaining plants will settle down.
Transplanting cabbage seedlings
A week before transplanting the seedlings on a permanent place, the soil on the bed should be well watered with a 3% solution( 1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water) of copper sulphate solution( or any other preparation containing copper) in order to destroyspores of the keel. Instead of copper, you can use the biopreparation "Phytosporin."In addition, we must additionally deoxidize the soil directly when planting seedlings. A dessert spoonful of calcium nitrate should be added to each well, pour a full hole of water and plant the seedlings together with a clod of earth. If calcium nitrate is not present, pour 1/3 cups of ash into the hole. If an additional 1/2 h. Of a powder fraction of the full mineral fertilizer AVA is added to the hole before planting, mineral dressings can be avoided in the future. Or you can bury it in the soil, at the depth of the palm, "Apion", between each four holes for seedlings. This will also allow the whole summer not to give mineral fertilizing.
The well must be deep enough to plant the seedlings, since the cotyledon leaves are completely covered with soil, not breaking off, and the first 2 true leaves should lie on the soil. They are covered with soil half way and after 2 days the soil is shaken off. In this case, the transplant seedling will not lose a single leaf.
Seedlings at the time of transplantation( approximately 30-45 days after emergence) should have 4-5 true leaves and a height of about 15 cm. If the seedling has overgrown and it has more leaves than it should, then it is better to cut off the 2 lower leaves, since they do not carewither, and moisture until this point will evaporate. The stem in overgrown seedlings, as a rule, forms a bent knee. When planting in the ground it must be covered with soil, without trying to straighten it.
Transplant should be done in the evening. If the next day is too hot and sunny weather, the planted seedlings should be used for a couple of days, you can use a hood, folded from a newspaper sheet. As soon as a new leaf appeared, the seedlings took root. In the future, care for cabbage such as that mentioned above. Pay attention to the following.
Soil should be constantly maintained at pH 6-7.To do this, every 2-3 weeks, cabbage should be watered with lime milk. A glass of lime( preferably dolomite flour) should be diluted in 10 liters of water and poured 1 liter of this mallet into the root of each cabbage plant. Remains of lime in the bucket add water and pour any other cruciferous plants. All of them do not like sour soil.
Soak up the soil once for the whole season is impossible, primarily because we constantly have acid rains, in addition, the groundwater from below is also acidic. In addition, large doses of lime can not be applied immediately, it will bind soil phosphorus and potassium, and they will become inaccessible to plants.
In regions with a humid climate( Primorye, North-West, Kaliningrad region) frequent rains wash all the mineral elements, including calcium, straight into our wells from the soils, since in these soils there is very little humus that retains the soil solution. Instead of calcareous milk, you can water cabbage with a solution of calcium nitrate( 3 tablespoons per 10 liters of water), which adds alkalinity to the soil. Under the root of each plant, 0.5 liters of solution is poured.
Cabbage cabbage needs hilling, otherwise the head may fall on its side and lie on the ground. In this case, the probability of disease is high.
Addition and watering of cabbage
When growing seedlings, watering should be done moderately. In June, cabbage should be watered daily, because there is an intensive growth of leaves( 2-3 leaves per week).Watering is increased as the head is growing, but 2-3 weeks before cutting, watering is reduced, otherwise the head may crack.
Feeding should be done regularly, weekly, immediately after watering, alternating organic and mineral top dressing. As an organic feeding we can give a water-diluted weed of weeds( 1: 5), manure( 1: 10) or bird droppings( 1: 20).As a mineral fertilizing, you can take 3 tbsp.spoons of azofoski or nitrofoski, or even better eco-fosks on a bucket of water."Kemir" to use for top dressing is undesirable, because it strongly acidifies the soil, or it is necessary to add 2 tbsp.a spoonful of calcium nitrate or a glass of ash for 10 liters of top dressing for its deoxidation.
Agronorm( total removal of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from each square meter of soil with yield per season) in cabbage 37, and the balance between nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is 43: 11: 46, that is, it needs approximately the same amount of nitrogen and potassium. If you give her a little more potassium than nitrogen, she will not accumulate nitrates for future use. At the moment of tying cabbages, microelements, especially boron, are required. Best of all, from the moment when it forms 5-6 cover leaves, add 2 spoons of "Uniflor micro" fertilizer to the dressing. In the most extreme case, you must add at least boric acid - 2 g per 10 liters of additional fertilizer.
Cabbage Diseases and Problems
More often than not, cabbage is sick with a whale, while the leaves of the plant acquire a bluish tinge and at noon they become attached. If you dig a bush, then on the roots you will see growths - this is the keel. Also, cabbage often suffers from vascular and mucous bacteriosis, powdery mildew.
In cases of vascular bacteriosis, large, blooming yellow spots appear on the edges of the leaves, and black veins are visible on the lumen. On the cut, blackened vessels are visible. The plant must be excavated and burned.
In case of a mucous bacteriosis disease, the petioles of the leaves become slimy at the place of their attachment to the stump, they rot and rot and smell disgusting. Plants should be destroyed immediately. Most often, the mucous bacteriosis of cabbage falls ill during storage. Bacteriosis is transmitted with seeds and plant remains. To avoid the transfer of infection by seeds, they should be kept for 15-20 minutes in hot( 53 ° C) heated water before sowing. Then immediately sow.
With powdery mildew on the upper side of the leaves, yellow spots appear, from the lower side under the spots a gray coating forms. The disease is also transmitted with seeds and plant remains.
At an early age, the seedling can get a black leg. Now against all these misfortunes there is an excellent non-chemical and non-toxic drug - "Phytosporin".In addition, it is made on the basis of humus, that is, it is also a good organic fertilizing. In the humus contains a living soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, which is kept in a special state of preservative in a state of suspended animation, that is, in hibernation. But, as soon as the bacterium enters the aquatic environment, it activates and begins to devour the pathogens of all fungal and bacterial diseases, because it is a predator. Do not wait for diseases to crush your cabbage. Take preventive measures, that is, at least once in 2-3 weeks, water the plants with a solution of "Phytosporin", and not only cabbage, but all vegetables. Use all vegetables and greens processed by "Fitosporin", as well as fruits and berries on the same day, only first they should be washed with water.
If there is no "Phytosporin", then you will have to use a 0.1% solution of copper sulfate( or any other preparation containing copper, for example "Hom"), but we must remember that the processed plants can not be used after about 20 days.
Against all fungal and bacterial diseases the new biopreparation "Zircon" is a great help.
At an early age, cabbage suffers from cruciferous fleas. No pollination with ashes, and even more chemical poisons, do not work on it, and toxic chemicals should not be used in a tiny space of six hundred. There is a drug "Tokar", consisting of tobacco dust and carbide. He well destroys cruciferous flea, but after all, both tobacco and carbide production are considered harmful so that workers are given free milk. But there is one not too harmful agent, namely, shampoo "Bim" for washing dogs against fleas. Take the third station.spoons of this shampoo for 10 liters of water and sprinkle cabbage in the morning.
Cabbage whiting lays yellow eggs on the underside of the cabbage leaf. Butterfly is clearly visible, it flies during the day. As soon as this white( or yellow) butterfly flashed, immediately cover with cabbage lutrasilom or put on each head kapron stocking or a bag of fiberglass from under the sugar. Just dig it well into the soil, as the butterfly is a dodger and will climb into any hole. Cabbage whiting is clean and will not lay eggs on a dirty sheet. It is enough to soil it with ashes mixed with water, in which soap is added for better adhesion. Since the strange smell of cabbage whites is also not pleasant, you can pour cabbage during the flight of a butterfly infusion of weeds.
In general, pests, be they insects, be they mites, do not touch healthy plants, because they have a fast protein synthesis and little cell carbohydrates in the cell sap, pests prefer carbohydrates, not proteins, that is they love sugars. Here in the cellular juice of weakened plants it is just a lot, because the protein synthesis is slow. If pests eat your cabbage, then it is weak or sick, you are not taking good care of it. Before applying the drugs against pests, feed the plants, pour, loosen the soil under them and strengthen their own immune system, spraying in the evening with a solution of "Epine-extras" or "Novosila( Silka").Both preparations are of biological origin.
Oviposition bellynts are clearly visible. They can simply be crushed, and the caterpillars that managed to survive are also pressured. They are also clearly visible, and the result of their activity is particularly well seen - the eaten leaves. It is easy to find pests on them.
Note by
Do not use chemical poisons, there are modern biologics for pest control. The best of them is "Fitoverm".You can use Agravertin( Iskra-Bio).These drugs are absorbed by the leaves and protect the plants for three weeks against any pests, including ticks. Pests, though sucking, though gnawing, having tasted the treated plant, immediately stop eating, because these drugs cause them paralysis of the gastrointestinal tract, and die after two days from hunger.
After treatment with these preparations, all sprayed plants can be eaten after 48 hours.
Another pest is cabbage moth. She lays a single, inconspicuous egg, from which the emerald-green spindle-shaped caterpillar emerges, incredibly harmful. The caterpillar immediately penetrates into the nascent head and spoils it all.
Very bad wrecker - caterpillar cabbage scoop( night moth).
Does not eat so much, how many it spoils its head with cabbages( or heads of cauliflower), inside which it is taken.
Quite a big harm cabbage is caused by a cabbage fly. This pest lays on the surface of the soil an egg from which a larva hatching gnawing the base of the stem or the root of cabbage and a damaging plant on the root. In wet years, the damage can be significant, but in a dry year the egg dries right on the soil, and the larva dies. Usually, it is recommended that the soil be roughened from cabbage, and sprinkle cabbage with salt water( 1 glass of salt per 10 liters of water).
All these pests first fly during cherry blossom, and the second time their flight begins around mid-July and lasts for more than a month. The signal is always a butterfly cabbage whiting. As soon as the whitening flew, take urgent measures to protect the cabbage.
Slugs and snails also like to regale cabbage. They go out for feeding at night and gnaw large holes in the leaves. These pests can be collected and destroyed or fed to chickens. To do this, you need to lay out slices of slate in their feeding areas: Slugs are picked up for them for a day, so in the daytime you just need to turn the slate and collect pests.
You can use poison against poison slugs - methylaldehyde, which is sold under the names "Meta" or "Thunder".For each leg of cabbage, next to the stem, 3-4 beads of methaldehyde should be placed. When slugs crawl on cabbage at night, they will burn the abdomen about these granules and die. But methaldehyde is a pretty strong poison, and you should know about it.
There is an old antiquated method against slugs: dilute 0.25 cups of 9% vinegar in a bucket of water and in the evening pour cabbage with this solution from above, on the crown. There is another recommendation - to twist around the stalk of the cabbage stalk of nettle. Slugs are afraid of nettle burns. However, in a wet summer with a large collection of slugs on the site, I saw that they both ate nettles. There is an interesting observation of gardeners: slugs like beer. In those places where on the leaves of plants pests have gnawed large holes, excavate in the evening half-liter jars( the edges of the cans - level with the soil), on the bottom of which you can pour a beer. Slugs will be crawled into cans, flattered for a free drink, but they can not get out of glass jars. In the morning you will collect them in one jar and fill it with heavily salted water. After death, you can throw slugs on a compost pile, the birds readily eat them. All these methods are suitable for combating snails.
Typical failures when growing cabbage
. Cabbage first lays a supply of nutrients in the covering leaves, like in a pantry, to use them when tying the head. Usually the head starts to tie at 7-9 covering leaves. Many for some reason take off these large green covering leaves, that is, they destroy the pantry and the cabbage again begins to build them up stubbornly. So there is a struggle, "who is who," between cabbage and the owner of the site, and there were no cabbages, as well as not. When the cabbage itself devastates its pantry-leaves, it will show it to you, because the covering leaves of it completely turn yellow and it will throw them off on their own. You can help her in this, but only with full yellowing of the lower leaves.
In addition, cabbage can simply be nedoste and nedopit. Begin to give a strong top dressing, at least 2 liters per week, and everything will go fine. Another of the frequent reasons is insufficient lighting. Cabbage is a very light-loving culture, it will not tie in the shade. By the way, with too much top dressing with nitrogen, the head is also badly tied. So let's give nitrogen only together with potassium and do not exceed the norms of nitrogen fertilizing.