This is the day I have been waiting for since  I bought the seeds of Earliana – an early yielding variety of cabbage. I wrote about it here and here. This morning I decided to pluck it. Reason?.. Its almost 2 months from the date of transplanting, i ran out of patience and I saw some cracking on one of the cabbages.

Ok now for some details.

Totally I had 3 pots with cabbage. Of which 2 of them were in good sunlight for few initial days and one of them was in part shade ( due to space constraints). Later, all the 3 of them came to my balcony where they get less than 2-3 hours sunlight.

This is how they looked day before yesterday.

Winner:

MyGarden 816

Runner:

MyGarden 817

Oh wait a minute..Am I in a race?

MyGarden 818

If you notice the 2nd pic carefully, the cracks and the splits are observed. Yes that cabbage started cracking.  Why? It could be one of the following reasons.

  • The cabbages are mature but not harvested on time. Early maturing varieties are prone to cracking quickly.
  • Over watering – Especially when the head is mature. Causing the inner leaves to grow more faster than the outer mature leaves of the head. Thus causing it to break.
  • Over fertilizing – Causing the new shoot to grow faster than the outer leaves resulting in cracking.

I don’t know which one, but yeah the cabbage cracked!. So what to do in this situation. a) Just harvest it and eat!. or b) do the freakiest thing. Just lift the cabbage plant with the plant from the pot and put it back in after turning it half turn. This is what is recommended by many sources in the internet and it makes sense because doing so cuts many roots which checks the intake of water and hence slowing down the growth of the new shoot. you can also randomly cut out some roots if you know what you are doing.How is that for a learning!?

Lessons learnt:

Cabbage cracking and how to prevent/correct it.

Full sunlight is very important for cabbage’s growth.( I mean..Isn’t that obvious)?

I am now brave enough to try it one more time and get much better yields.

Oh, I forgot to mention how much they weighed.

The winner cabbage( i.e the first pic) weighed 580gms and the 2nd runner weighed 470 gms.

We cooked the 500+gms one and it was sweet and tasty.!

more later

NOTE: I am still working on Part II of “So you want to start a kitchen garden”. Please bear with me.

gg

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12 Responses

  1. Hmm… They look yummy.

    My cabbages are not doing so well.. They are all infested with caterpillar of all sizes. I try and pick and crush them but there are always few more the next day.

    Around last Diwali there were a lot of butterflies in the garden. Guess they found my garden a good place for laying their eggs.

  2. 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

  3. hello GG

    Since Im your new visitor Im reading all your old blogs now.

    I just read the one about the containers .
    I have a doubt regarding holes that are to be made in the containers.

    1.Is there any pattern that one should follow?
    2.Depending on the size of the container should the number of holes be different?
    3.What is the usual size of the holes?
    4.Is there any recommende position – whether it should be on the bottom or few inches above the ground level?

    Thanks very much
    Chitra

    • Hi Chitra,

      I used to make around 4-5 holes in the bottom of the pots. For the hole size, 1cm dia should be fine. I make it with a hot screw driver. Nowadays, I make holes in the sides of the pots an inch from the bottom. Also I attach a tank nipple to the hole.

      gg

  4. So i have a question – once harvested, does it mean you have to plant another cabbage seed or something? Or will the plant grow another cabbage head soon?

    • Good question Swapna,

      I planted another seedling but one of the cabbage I harvested, I left the stalk with roots in the pots and in a week I saw lots of shoots coming up from the sides of the stalk. I believe it will grow back. I haven’t tried it though.

      gg

  5. Hi GG,

    I am facing a problem. all my OKRA plant leave are becoming white. It seems like fungus and also coriander and Tulsi leaves are turning white. i have been using panchgavya and then PE-FU-MI once a week. is it because of overdose of these things. i don’t get it what to do next. after waiting for at a month and a half okra is giving me veggie but it has white leaves and small bugs (black, light green and white ) on the back side of leaves. Please suggest sth. most of my pots are also hosting black ants.

    Regards
    Niyati

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