- Cabbages, a plant that I have a long and storied history with as a gardener. Four or five years ago in my old home, I grew a massive cabbage. It got me hooked on the plant, and then I hunted down giant cabbages from a friend across the pond in the UK who holds a Guinness
Book of World Records. I sourced some seeds. I
lovingly cared for these seeds. I named the plant San Juan Cabbagestrano, a little fun play on a
city here in California. I thought that might give
it the vigor it needed. Unfortunately, three generations of San Juan Cabbagestrano's line have died on my watch,
(baby cries) and that's why in today's video, I'm gonna give you the tricks and tips and mistakes to avoid when
growing the beautiful cabbage. Mistake number one is just
growing one type of cabbage. I encourage you to try
out different varieties. So this is a green cabbage right here. It's a longer maturing variety that I pretty much am
gonna get all of them at the same exact time. Now, in my case, that's not a big deal. I can give them to family and friends, process into sauerkraut. But if you are in a smaller space, or you don't really have a
plan, this can be a bad idea. You can grow a smaller,
quicker maturing one for fresh coleslaw, and
then you can grow a couple of these larger ones for
storage or sauerkraut. Another reason why you may
wanna grow different varieties is because not every
cabbage variety matures at the exact same time. Let's say this one here is 80 days, and you can get one that
grows in a hundred days. You could actually start
those at the same time in the season, but the harvest
window would be staggered by an average of 20 days. So it gives you a little time
to actually use the stuff that's coming out of the garden. Mistake number two is not
fertilizing your cabbage enough. If you think about what a cabbage is, it's really these large fan
leaves that start to wrap, and curl around, and form this head.
- Hello! - But from a botanical perspective, it's really just leaves
that have been sort of wrapped on one another. What that means, what leafy growth mostly
needs is a lot of nitrogen. Actually, cabbage is
classified as a heavy feeder, much like something like a
tomato is a heavy feeder. So at the beginning of the season, a really good thing to do when you transplant that cabbage in, grab some compost or grab
some high nitrogen fertilizer, go around the base of the plant, and start sprinkling or filling maybe about a foot out or so, and that kind of brings
us to our next mistake. Mistake number three ties
into the last mistake, because cabbages are
sort of greedy plants. They need a lot of food, and they also need a
lot of water and space. It's an interesting plant, because you have these large fan leaves that fan out in a pretty wide space. I mean, this is about a two, two and a half foot across
cabbage from leaf to leaf, but the actual head
itself is maybe about six to eight inches in size. That being said, you still
have to give it that space, so that it has the water
and food that it needs, which means you need to
give it at least 12 inches on either side, up to 24
inches on either side, depending on the variety. And on the seed packet, you can usually see what
that spacing requirement is. But this is something
where you really need to visualize the end state of the plant, how that seed is going to actually show up as a final ready-to-harvest
plant so you don't crowd it out. Mistake four has to do
with placement and timing. Timing first, if you mess
your timing window up, the plant's just not gonna grow that well. So when temps drop below 45
degrees, it's gonna struggle. It might trigger an early
flower or early bolt, and also, if you try to grow cabbage like
straight through the summer, you're gonna have a bad time. But the more permanent
mistake you can make here is the placement of your
cabbage in your garden. So cabbage is a leafy green technically, but unlike maybe a lettuce,
or a spinach, or a kale, it can actually handle
a little bit more sun than those plants, mostly
because it's forming this head. it's getting a little bit more compact. It's not as loose and airy and sort of drying out in intense heat. That being said, only
during that heading up phase is when you wanna be
giving it a lot of sun. In our area, for example, you get some pretty decent early spring or late winter hot periods, where you would want to shade
this out in the afternoon. So I would say, as a general rule, give it a lot of sun as
it's starting to head up. But then once it does head up, you can hopefully have it in
a spot where, by that time, it's getting a little bit of
protection or afternoon shade. Mistake number five is watering, and it's mostly on the overwatering side rather than the underwatering side. Underwatering is mostly a
mistake you'd make early on in its life while these
leaves are still heading up. Remember this is mostly water, guys, so giving it some water's
gonna help it grow. But the problem comes
when the cabbage gets to heading size, it really starts to head. That head's getting a little bit tight. What happens, especially in rain, is the water pressure can
actually pop the cabbage, and it can split right at the top. And you know that might
not be a big deal for you if you're gonna use it
for coleslaw or something, but if you do want that nice,
perfect, beautiful head, make sure to dial your
watering down just a tad as that cabbage starts
to head and tighten up. And with that said, I'm
gonna harvest one right now, and show you my favorite
way of harvesting. It's called the decabbagetation. You go ahead and grab it like this, and you give it that twist. Oh, hold on. You go ahead and grab it like
this, give it that twist. And there you go, right outta the ground, a nice, beautiful cabbage. Hopefully these mistakes help you grow your first epic cabbage. Good luck in the garden,
and keep on growing. (upbeat music)
