by Janette Peel

Created on: May 25, 2009

Cabbage is a crisp, nutritious vegetable tasty raw or cooked. Cabbage is generally a cool-weather crop grown for its flavorsome leaves harvested in spring or autumn.

Cabbage is a versatile vegetable that can be grown as a relatively quick spring or early summer crop, or it can be planted in late summer for an autumn to early winter harvest. In most areas it can be grown all year round, although midsummer harvests should be avoided, as cabbages tend to bolt to seed in the warm weather.

The three types of cabbage, green, red and savoy, all have large outer leaves surrounding densely packed heads of crisp flavorsome, inner leaves.

Green cabbages have blue-green outer leaves and creamy white inner leaves. This cabbage is mile-flavored.

Beautiful red cabbages produce dark, wine-red heads with paler red to pink inner leaves that have a sweet to mild taste.

Savoy cabbages have green to blue-green, crinkled leaves. They do not store well, but have an especially good flavor.

If cabbage leaves show yellow-brown spots, and then entire leaves or heads turn yellow and eventually shrivel, plants may be suffering from black rot. Confirm your diagnosis by cutting a stem and looking for a dark ring inside. Pull up and dispose of any infected plants.

Cabbages need soil rich in nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and calcium. Deficiencies can cause small, soft heads, yellowed leaves or browned leaf tips. Test the soil and add nutrients before planting.

To plant and care for your cabbages:

1. Fill pots with potting mix to within 1 cm of the pot rim. Sow three seeds per pot, 5mm deep, then water well.

2. Keep the pots warm and moist until the seedlings begin to appear. Thin them to one seedling per pot and move to a sunny window sill.

3. If transplanting your cabbage seedlings in spring, set the pots outside in a protected spot during the day to get them accustomed to the outside temperatures and bring them in again at night.

4. Transplant the seedlings into soil that has been enriched with lots of organic matter. Space them 30-60cm apart, depending on the type.

5. To deter cabbage moths, cover the plants with landscaping cloth. Mulch the soil and keep it moist to encourage even growth.

Harvest the cabbage when its head is almost full with a twist to sever the feeder roots. Remaining roots will nourish growth after harvest.

Purchase healthy seedlings in early spring with medium green leaves, or, buy cabbage

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