I get this a lot. “Why only tomatoes?”. Mostly my Mom and Wife. Ok Seriously, why only tomatoes? My answer is.. a) tomatoes are forgiving. b) tomatoes are needed daily c) they yield forever!. Don’t they?
Lets say I grow onions, It takes pretty long time to be ready for harvest and guess what? 3-4 months of growth gives me an onion or two per pot and that is used up in a day!. That I feel is less productive. I would have done two different veggies in that time. For a guy, who is so particular about his container real estate, it matters a LOT. So, I kind of stick with Toms, Peppers, Chillies and quick growing/yielding varieties.
Anyway, I wasn’t interested in cabbages either, until I came across a variety that yields quicker in 2 months. Guess what happened. Seeds sown in small pots the very next day! 
In this post, I present to you the variety called “Earliana”.
“57 days. Brassica oleracea. Plant produces small 2 lb round cabbage. This variety takes less time to mature than other varieties. It will cut your growing time in half! Suitable for home gardens” says a description on one of the seed selling sites.
Cabbages are transplanted or can be sown directly too. I had sown them in small trays and after I saw two true leaves. I transplanted them to small pots. In the small pots, shown below, the transplants spent a good 1 month. The leaves show, don’t they?
Step 1: Get the transplants ready.
Step 2: Choose a container.
Creativity is your limit in choosing a container. But again, choosing old shoes and egg shells are unrealistic. Choose a container that is 12″ wide and 12″ deep. I simply choose the dustbin buckets like the one pictured below. It holds approx 8Litres of medium. The blue protruding thing you see is for the drainage. Thats is generally called as “Tank Joint” and in bangalore you have to ask “Tank nipple”. ( Dont get me started on that name). The one I use is 3/4th of an inch and is an inch from the bottom. Why so much fuzz… whats wrong with a simply poke-few-holes-in-the-bottm technique? If you are using a terrace or balcony you will know. The drainage water when it comes through the side, it is more controllable. I can connect all the outlets of all the buckets and let it into one drum saves water. Also, since the drain hole is 1inch from the bottom, it always stores some amount of water inside which prevents the plant from wilting off in hot weather.
Step 3: Get the soil mix ready.
By soil mix I meant the potting mix. It can be a potting mix that you made yourself, or purchased from outside. The picture shown here is a 50-50 mix of Coco peat ( Coir Pith) and Compost.
Step 4: Carefully remove the seedling from the pot.
This step is very important. The whole point is to remove the plant from its pot without any disturbance to its roots. If your medium is coco peat based then the plant will come very easily. You keep your hand in such a way that the plant stem is in between your fingers and your palm holds the top soil. This prevents the plant stem from breaking and the media from falling off.
You can see the pot full of roots but they are not pot bound so no worries.
Now gently turn the plant while holding the root mass with your hands.
Step 5: Place the plant and add more potting mix
Fill 3/4 of the container with potting mix and keep the seedling on top and gently add potting mix to the sides and with care, compact the top at the same time not damaging the plants roots.
Thats it! the transplanting is over. Its time to water them and keep them in a place where there is no direct sunlight. Once they are hardened they will be kept where it receives atleast 6 hours of sunlight.
I transplanted 3 seedlings. Here they are.
Though this post is titled “Transplant cabbage”. This applies to most of the seedlings.
Enjoy!.
gg
Asha said,
October 13, 2009 at 10:34 am
Using the dust-bin is a brilliant idea. Why now I dont have to wait to go to LalBagh or Siddapura
Again, I have one more question. Where do you get Cocopeat and how is it priced in B’lore?
Thanks for this info on transplanting. I am still uncomfortable have had quite a lot of failures in this.
This was my method I used and worked fairly ok – http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashasusan/3655939187/in/set-72157606309142053/. Basically made simple pouches by folding ‘kora’ cloth and stitched through to make a lot of bags. Watering is easier because I just need to add water to the base pan. Transplanting time, I just cut a slit at the bottom and lowered it into the soil.
geekgardener said,
October 13, 2009 at 11:45 am
Thanks Asha,
Another reason why I love the dustbin is its price. It is priced at Rs 14/- a piece in Avenue Road. It is stackable and portable. Cocopeat is available in Varsha Enterprise in K.R road.
Asha,
.
I went through all the pics on your flickr page. It is just awesome & irresistible. The pictures are so perfect and garden is so lovely. Strawberries are so nice. Any idea where can I get the runners for Strawberries. I read that they are propagated through runners. If there is any other way also let me know. I am all ears
Great work!.. Why not start a blog?
gg
Jayadeep Purushothaman said,
October 13, 2009 at 10:56 am
So you don’t use any red soil at all ? And where do you buy cocopeat ? Lalbagh doesn’t seem to stock it regularly.
How about okra for a short cycle produce ?
geekgardener said,
October 13, 2009 at 11:12 am
Hi Jayadeep.
I do use red soil but offlate I am more inclined towards cocopeat. Because it is easy to work with and i dont have to break my back cleaning the mess caused by using red soil. Too heavy and compacts too quickly. It gives very results though.
You get Cocopeat from Varsha Enterprise in K.R Road. I buy 5Kg bales. I also get from Eco Coir from Tirunelveli. Tamilnadu.
I am ok with long cycle too but the yield should be continuous and not just one day. I had grown Okra and they make very good container plants.
gg
Srividya said,
October 14, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Hi GG,
some great ideas here…. i have also tried the dustbins for very similar reasons and they work very well. the drain pipe is a good idea. well, do you put in some gravel in the base, till the base of the drain pipe? also, i seem to have run a bit out of luck on the tomato seeds. i tried 2 batches in the last 10 days, one in a mix of peat and manure and the other in a mix of manure and red soil. got the seeds at 25 bucks from a shop. none germinated! the okra quickly sprung up though. i do not think age of tomato seeds matter do they? anyways, here in chennai, i was getting just one variety of tomato and i am quite keen to get a few more.
what price do you pay for the peat? and do you expand all of it at a time?
i had seen some queries on vermiculite. in chennai, vermiculite is available through the TAMIN office, costs about 7.5 rs. a kg. any one wants to know the process, glad to help.
geekgardener said,
October 14, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Hi Srividya,
I simply put the potting mix all the way to the top. With coco peat, compost mix, drainage is excellent and the water holding is also optimum. An inch depth at the bottom kind of acts as a small reservoir.
Too bad your tomatoes didnt germinate. Tomato seeds are viable upto 10 years. I have tried seeds of age 1.5-2 years and they have germinated well. Anyway, I can understand your eagerness to grow more varieties. If you need some good varieties of tomatoes let me know.
I pay around Rs 40-50 a bale of 5Kg compressed coco peat. I expand the whole thing at a time and use it whenever I need it.
I appreciate your offer for vermiculite. Gardeners are such generous people.
Happy gardening.
gg
fenugreeklove said,
October 14, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Thanks for very informative post. I’ll try growing cabbage in containers next season. I live near Seattle, USDA grow zone 8. Winter is approaching and everything will be dead soon. I think earlist I can start cabbage seedling earllier will be February 2010. How long does it take from seed to get to 4/6 leaves seedling (in your pic)?
geekgardener said,
October 16, 2009 at 11:39 am
Hi fenugreeklove,
Thanks. It took me a month to get to that stage (in pic).
gg
arundati said,
October 15, 2009 at 10:01 am
Hi gg,
Are the plastic bins sturdy enough to hold a regular mixture of red soil , sand and cowdung manure ? I ask this because I regularly shift my pots around chasing sunlight ? I’m sure that the cocopeat mixture that you use must be much lighter..
hi Srividya,
I would be really glad if you can give me the address of TAMIN to purchase the vermiculite.
geekgardener said,
October 16, 2009 at 11:27 am
Hi Arundati,
I initially used red soil sand and manure mix in plastic bins and they handle quite ok for 6 months-1year. But after that the brim start to become flaky and break apart if you move it around a lot. The coco peat mixture is way lighter and easy to handle as well. You can play with coco peat and walk with clean hands
.
Also, Arundati, I would suggest dont mix Vermiculite with Red soil It will become the worst mix. vermiculite is a form of expanded mica. If you press the individual flakes it will flatten and lose its property. Though I was using vermiculite initially, i dont use it now or suggest it. Cocopeat by itself is excellent in water holding.
Keep us posted of your progress.
gg
Asha said,
October 16, 2009 at 11:39 am
Hi GG,
Thanks for the compliment… but really, those are photographs taken over a long time. My garden is not that great
I would be happy to pass on a couple of strawberry runner for you to start with. I have some to spare. Shouldn’t be difficult for you to pass on as I think we stay quite close. My experience with the strawberry plant is that the first plant took a bit to catch on after which it does propogate quite fast. But I have to beat the squirrels to getting the fruit though!
Asha said,
October 16, 2009 at 11:47 am
Ha, I realized I pressed the ’submit’ button too soon and now I can’t edit the comment. I meant I can pass on the strawberry runners to you and that it should not be too difficult to pick up for you since I think we stay fairly close by. If you send me a mail to my id, I can let you know my address. Sorry about the double comment!
geekgardener said,
October 16, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Hi Asha,
No problem at all.
. I will send you an email shortly.
I am with a big smile now. Strawberries in my garden
gg
Chandramouli said,
October 16, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Wow GG, cabbage in 57 days!!!!???? That’s cool. I’m still all nervous about veggies. Besides my gardening has slowed down badly due to various reasons, but I’m visiting all blogs again for inspiration and yours defintely does the trick.
geekgardener said,
October 16, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Hey mouli,
Yeah thats what the info about the variety says. Lets hope it comes true. You nervous about growing veggies?!. Its hard to believe. You have a green thumb. go right ahead.
Sorry to hear that gardening is slowed down. I am sure you will be back in action soon. I had sent you an email sometime back about seeds.
gg
Updates on Cabbage. « Geekgardener’s Weblog said,
November 3, 2009 at 11:57 am
[...] grown, earliana, early Earlier I Transplanted the cabbages and also blogged about it in this post. I thought I will post a picture or two on their progress. The pictures shown below are 15 days [...]
Srikanth said,
December 5, 2009 at 9:20 am
Hi,
I have started Hydropnoic garden just a couple of weeks ago. I am from Hyderabad. There aren’t any good garden stores here. Can you believe I paid Rs. 150 per 5KG block? Imagine spending 1,500 for 10 blocks for something that costs Rs 4/kg at bulk!
Are there any online stores that ship seeds to Hyderabad?
How did you add the drain to the plastic dustbins?
Quite impressive indeed. I will try to implement some of your techniques.
geekgardener said,
December 5, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Hi Srikanth,
Yeah, I can understand your frustration. I am not aware of any online stores that ship seeds. I can help you out of you want some seeds. Let me know. I drill a whole and attach a tank nipple in that.
gg
Srikanth said,
December 5, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Hi gg,
Thanks for the offer. I will get back to you with the seeds I need.
-Srikanth
Uma said,
December 7, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Your cabbages look very good. I feel jealous of it. I have also planted ladies finger, brinjal, beans and tomato in pots. My potting mix is 1part of red soil, 1 part of sand and 1part of compost. I have kept in my terrace. But my plants growth is not at all good
I have applied bio-fertilizers also. VAM for vegetables, azozpirillum for flowers and rhizobium for beans. I waited for 20days. Still the beans plant is not grown well. Tomato with only 2 that too very small. Can u please suggest me?
Regards,
Uma
Srikanth said,
December 7, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Hello Uma,
For nutritional requirements of plants in India see http://www.aphorticulture.com and http://www.ikisan.com (they both work well only in IE). Here you can find lots of information about veggies, fruits, flowers etc.
-Sirkanth
Ceepee said,
December 8, 2009 at 12:31 pm
A new fan of this blog. I am a keen balcony gardener and came across this while searching for some tips. geekgardener, did you manage to get strawberry runners? I have been looking for them for a very long time,
geekgardener said,
December 8, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Hi Ceepee,
Welcome to my blog. I have two strawberry plants that on my blog reader Asha gave me. They are flowering now. No runners yet. I will be more than happy to share if they throw some.
gg
Abhigyan said,
December 10, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Hi GeekGardner,
This is really an inspirational blog. I am myself moving into indoor gardening now having left the habit when I left my home for a job in Delhi and now am thinking of reviving the habit. I also loved the idea of dustbins being used as pots and tank nipples
. Let me see how they go here.
Need less to say the blog goes into my fav.
Regards,
Abhigyan
geekgardener said,
December 13, 2009 at 11:14 pm
@Abhigyan,
Thanks and great to hear that you are reviving your gardening habit. Good luck and keep us posted.
gg