Growing cabbage from A to Z. How to properly care for cabbage in open ground in order to reap a good harvest How to grow a good harvest of white cabbage

Cabbage is a vitamin-rich vegetable, without which many simply cannot imagine their diet. The product is used for preparing salads, hot dishes, and canning. Despite the fact that every garden has a crop, not all summer residents pay due attention to watering. Because of this, the plant grows poorly, often gets sick, and sometimes does not even set heads. How to water cabbage to reap the most generous harvest?

Cultural information

Cabbage is a garden plant with large leaves, which close together and form a dense head of cabbage. The crop will bear fruit abundantly if water and fertilizing are applied in a timely manner. When choosing a species for cultivation, you need to take into account its characteristics and weather conditions.

Young cabbage

Which varieties are in greatest demand:

June is an early ripening variety, the heads of cabbage of which ripen 60-65 days after planting the seedlings. The maximum weight of dense light green heads of cabbage is 2.5 kg;
Cossack F1 is an ultra-early variety. Heads of cabbage ripen after 65-70 days after sowing. Fruit weight – 1.5 kg. The species is resistant to fungal diseases and pests;
Aggressor F1 is a late high-yielding variety. The weight of a round-flat head of cabbage often reaches 4.5 kg;
Amager 611 is a late variety, the growing season of which lasts 150-160 days. The heads of cabbage are dense, green and white. Weight – 4-5 kg;
Snow White - growing season duration 145-160 days. With careful care, the heads of cabbage grow up to 4 kg. Due to its dense structure, it can be stored for 6 months;
Centurion is a hybrid plant. From planting to harvest, 100-110 days pass. The weight of the head of cabbage varies from 3 to 3.5 kg. It has high immunity to many diseases of the Cruciferous family.

How to water cabbage correctly

Important! It is recommended to water the cabbage with slightly warm water. Optimal temperature liquid for moistening the soil in a bed with plants belonging to the Cruciferous family - +18-+23 C. If the watering solution is not warm, but cold, the plants experience severe shock and stop developing. Moreover, due to regular irrigation with ice water, heads of cabbage form slowly or do not set at all.

To bring the liquid to desired temperature, the day before the manipulation, it is poured into black barrels, which are placed in a well-lit place. In the southern regions, containers are placed in partial shade, since the scorching rays overheat the water. Hot water should not be used to water cabbage.

How often to water cabbage? The interval depends on the climatic conditions of the growing region and weather conditions current year. The higher the average daily temperature, the more moisture the crop needs to normal height. In rainy times, water is added to the plants only occasionally or not at all.

Watering the first cabbage shoots

How often to water seedlings different varieties cabbage? To make it easier for plants to take root, water is added 2-3 times a day. Best time for watering - morning and evening. It is impossible to irrigate plants during the day, as the water will quickly evaporate and will not have time to saturate them. According to this scheme, all types of cabbage are watered for 2 weeks. If a greenhouse is chosen as a permanent place of residence, the frequency of irrigation is adjusted based on the condition of the soil. To excess moisture could quickly evaporate, the room needs to be opened.

How to water cabbage seedlings correctly? The soil that the cassette contains or the seedling box is carefully moistened using a small watering can. Watering is carried out as the substrate dries.

Note! Watering varietal cabbage after planting should be regular but moderate. During this important period, excess moisture is as detrimental to the crop as its lack. Since planting in open ground is a decisive stage on which whether the gardener will have home-grown vegetables depends, the process must be approached very pedantically.

The intensity of watering directly depends on the growing season. Thus, newly planted seedlings and plants forming a head of cabbage most urgently need moisture. As for the time frame, the most abundant watering of late cabbage occurs in August-September, and early cabbage in June.

To prevent the roots from being damaged by contact with nutrients, increase the volume of water during each feeding. On all other days of the growing season, the soil should be moderately moist. It is impossible to bring the bed to the state of a swamp or desert. How much water does this crop need? The average for adult cabbage is 12 liters per 1 square meter. m area, 2 times a week.

Important! Watering is stopped 2-3 weeks before harvesting, as excess moisture causes cracking of the heads of cabbage. This rule especially applies to late-ripening varieties, the fruits of which are left for long-term storage.

Cabbage beds

Ways to moisten the soil

There are several ways to add water to the garden bed. Features of each of them:

Along the furrows. Water is introduced into the depressions made between the rows. This method is used only for irrigating mature bushes. The main advantage is optimal humidity for setting and ripening heads of cabbage, the disadvantage is that the soil can be waterlogged;
Sprinkling. How to water cabbage? Watering is done from above the plants, as a result of which not only the soil and leaves are moistened, but also the air in the garden bed. This method is considered the most optimal, since it is almost impossible to oversaturate the soil with moisture. In addition, watering can be combined with the application of fertilizers and insecticides. But the method also has disadvantages: the soil is unevenly wet, crusty after watering;
Drip irrigation. The newest, but no less effective than the previous two, method of irrigating garden plants. Its essence lies in the fact that water is supplied directly to the root through an irrigation hose with small holes. This system can be used on difficult terrain and in adverse weather conditions. Moreover, watering cabbage requires significantly less water than using other methods. Drip irrigation also has disadvantages: the high cost of equipment and the need to purify the water.

Which way is better? They are all effective, so you should choose the best one for your plants based on your own preferences, physical and financial situation.

Methods for combining watering and fertilizing

The following are very popular as fertilizer:

Ammonia. Add 50 ml of the substance to 5 liters of water and water the seedlings at the root. This feeding saturates the plant essential microelements and performs the function of an insecticide. Any pest avoids the “fragrant” bed;
Iodine. During the formation of leaves and ripening of heads of cabbage, the cabbage is fed with a solution of 5 drops of iodine and 10 liters of water. Treatment is carried out after watering or rain. To avoid contact with the concentrate, watering cabbage is carried out in a protective suit;
Combined mixture. To prepare the solution, add 15 g of urea and potassium chloride and 23 g of superphosphate to a standard bucket;
Superphosphate and wood ash. Stir 3 tbsp in a bucket of water. phosphate, 1 tbsp. ash.

Beijing cabbage responds especially well to combining the application of water with the application of complex mineral fertilizers.

To collect good harvest cabbage, you need to produce after the plants proper care, one of the main stages of which is watering. Water is added to vegetable crops based on weather conditions and the growing season. When watering cabbage, it is very important to adhere to the golden mean, so before implementing the watering plan, you need to check the condition of the soil.

Watering cabbage is the basis for cultivating all varieties of this vegetable crop. If the seedlings are successful and have taken root, then further success depends on the soil moisture regime. And on some types of soil the importance of proper watering different types cabbage in open ground increases. The fact is that a poorly developed superficial root system popular vegetable crop is not able to extract moisture from the deep layers of the soil. Drying out of the top layer of soil in dry, hot weather is dangerous for developing heads of cabbage. Without figuring out how to properly water cabbage in open ground, a gardener risks being left without a harvest.

Conditions for watering

Waiting for the vegetable to signal with its drooping leaves the need to moisten the bed means exposing the plants to even minor stress. A moisture-loving crop should not experience moisture deficiency. But you can’t fill it either - this is fraught with rotting and disease.

Important! A gardener, postponing watering for a day or two, does not take into account that the area of cabbage leaves is so large that it evaporates great amount moisture. This process is called transpiration, which ensures the flow of sap from the roots through the entire plant, transporting moisture and nutrients. If the amount of moisture evaporated through sheet plates, is not replenished with liquid supplied to the roots, the plant may die.

Soil type, climate features, current weather conditions are preconditions, which determine how often cabbage is watered in open ground beds.

Watering rules

The main period for the formation of heads of cabbage is the zenith of summer, when the weather is often hot and dry. The sun mercilessly dries out the soil. Moisture evaporates from hot soil in a matter of hours. And cabbage, which requires a lot of water, does not have time to satisfy the need. And if there has been no rain for a long time, but the temperature is low. How many times to water cabbage under such conditions even depends on the composition of the soil. The rules of hydration come down to several questions:

How often do you need to water cabbage in drought, heat, or cool weather?
How much moisture should be given?
What kind of water is best to water cabbage?
What time of day is best to do this?
Which watering method do you prefer?

But the answers to the questions must apply to the specific growing conditions of the crop.

Water requirements

A good half of gardeners will say that cabbage loves cold water. Published recommendations for crop care warn: watering cabbage cold water will inevitably lead to the risk of viral, fungal or bacterial diseases. A newcomer to cabbage beds will be confused by conflicting advice.

But there is no contradiction. Recommended temperature is 17-20°C. When the thermometer is above 30, the stream from the hose feels cool, even cold. But usually not lower than the recommended degree if irrigation water on the site is accumulated in containers. Coming from a well, a reservoir in storage tank, it warms up to a temperature comfortable for plants. There is no need to specially warm it up, as for cucumbers, for example, if the water was in the container for at least a day before entering the hose.

If the beds are equipped with sprinklers, the water may be colder: the finer the spray, the less the contrast between air and water temperatures. In the lines of a drip irrigation system, the liquid temperature rises to the minimum permitted level due to the low flow rate.

Important! It is strictly forbidden to pour tap water onto the beds, centralized water supply. Its temperature of 5-10 is critically low for cabbage. But the presence of chlorine is more important. If used for gardening tap water, it is poured into the storage capacity for settling so that all the chlorine evaporates. This requires at least a day. During this time, the temperature will even out to the required level.

Timing and frequency of watering

Watering cabbage in hot weather

Even in the hottest and driest weather, the rule applies: one day - one watering. Every day once, but very abundantly moisten the soil. The hotter the air and the less frequent the precipitation, the more insistently evening moisturizing is recommended. After 18-20 hours, when the sun is low, the rays fall obliquely enough so as not to leave burns on the leaves, because it is useful to pour not only at the root, but also to irrigate the plant itself. Only early in the morning or later in the evening the solar power is not enough to burn cabbage leaves through drops of water, as through lenses.

It is evening soil moisture that is more important during hot, dry periods, since a moisture-loving crop has a much better chance of meeting its needs. Overnight, the roots will easily absorb as much moisture as required. If you wet the soil in the morning, the scorching sun will not allow the cabbage to take all the necessary moisture from the soil. By evening the bed will be dry.

Important! Protecting and nourishing mulching of the soil between plants will help reduce intense evaporation and reduce the number and volume of watering. The entire space is covered with a layer (from 3-4 to 6-7 cm) of straw, cut weeds, and peat. If you use sawdust, then only rotted ones.

Periods with average daytime temperatures make it possible to moisten the beds less often, in the morning hours. The exact number of times you need to water the cabbage depends on various factors.

Depending on the ripening period

Early-ripening and late-ripening cabbage require a separate approach to moistening the soil:

Early varieties that ripen in the second half of summer require greater intensity water procedures, especially in June and the first half of July.
Late varieties require maximum moisture in the second half of July-August.

Depends on the region: the further north the area is located, the later the planting time and, accordingly, the ripening of the crop.

Depending on the type of cabbage

White cabbage varieties, on the beds with which water is poured at the rate of 8 liters for the first month, 12 liters for the remaining period after 6-8 days.
Colored - up to two times a week, in a volume of 10 liters;
Red cabbage – bucket per unit area / 10-14 days.
Broccoli – up to 3 times a week, up to 15 liters per unit. pl.
Kohlrabi - after 2-3 days, 7-10 liters.
Beijing - 10 liters per week.
Brussels - 10-12 l in 6-8 days

Cabbages of different types require constantly slightly moist soil. Without increasing the frequency of watering, this is achieved by mulching the beds.

On different types of soil

The structure of the soil, which determines its moisture capacity, affects the frequency and volume of watering work: sand allows water to pass through without retaining it, and clay does not allow moisture to quickly go deeper. You can figure out which species predominate on the site in a simple way:

Knead a handful of wet soil in your hands and try to form a ball.
If the attempt fails initially - the earth crumbles - high sand content, the earth needs a lot of water. Or, by adding clay, increase the moisture capacity of the soil.
The ball turned out, but with light pressure it crumbles. These are loams. It will be possible to water less often.
The earth kneads like plasticine, a dense, strong ball is easy to flatten and give to any shape. Clay soil, very heavy, does not allow water to pass through. A dense crust forms on dried clay soil. If the site is located on a slope, the water drains without getting to the roots. It is difficult to grow anything on such soil - sand and peat are added to lighten the structure.

During different periods of the growing season

Early varieties, newly emerged or rooted seedlings need watering (depending on the weather) at least once every 2-3 days. Before the technical ripeness phase - 1-2 times in 10 days.

Late-ripening cabbage is watered about 10 times per season at medium temperatures and with periodic precipitation:

1 – day of disembarkation;
2 – after 6-7 days;
3 – 5 – formation of a socket;
6 – 8 – tying and growing a head of cabbage;
9-10 – until technical ripeness.

Watering methods

Cabbage is a crop that is not picky about the method of adding moisture, so any convenient, accessible method can be used – from a watering can to complex automatic systems.

Traditional watering of cabbage

It is optimal for gardeners who visit the site regularly, and the soil is predominantly fertile, moisture-absorbing, and loose. When watering the beds, either from a watering can or from a hose with a nozzle, the vegetable grower knows that the water immediately penetrates deep into the roots. It is not difficult to wet such soil to the required 30-40 cm.

Traditional methods of moistening are suitable for small-sized plantings - a bed that is easy to approach first from one side, and then water the cabbage from the other edge. Using a watering can or hose, make furrows between the hilled plants and irrigate abundantly over the leaves.

Regular watering from a watering can is especially convenient. summer cottage when it is necessary to feed the crop: a measured amount of fertilizer is dissolved in a watering can and poured directly under the root. This feeding, combined with watering, eliminates accidental overdose, since at all stages the process is under the control of the summer resident.

Another reason why small land plots they are still watering from watering cans - an opportunity organic feeding. Infusions of herbs, onion or garlic peels, manure or droppings, no matter how you strain them, carry sediment, a suspension that can clog irrigation systems and damage expensive equipment.

Sprinkling

On a standard 6 acres, a sprinkler that supplies a diffuse stream of water under upward pressure will water, along with cabbage, what does not need to be watered. The method is suitable for large areas planted with cabbage, therefore it is used by large farmers and agricultural complexes. Water, like raindrops, settles on the leaves (therefore, sprinkle only early in the morning or evening), and the soil, maintaining its moisture.

It is advantageous to use the equipment on well-structured soils, since on heavy clay soils drops of water will not penetrate the hard surface crust - collecting in streams, they will flow downhill or, if the plantation is flat, they will stand in puddles, soaking the ground for a long time. Some of the water will have time to evaporate without getting into the ground.

A sprinkler system allows you to combine watering with fertilizing, but only highly soluble ones are used for fertilizer. mineral compounds so that foreign particles do not clog the system.

Drip

An option for those who cannot travel outside the city to their dacha to regularly moisten the beds. The simple system covers all plantings, supplies water to each plant, evenly saturating the soil with moisture.

Expensive automatic systems, configured once, maintain cabbage beds without the participation of the owner of the garden. Simple, but no less effective, are collected from ready-made kits or select hoses, pipes, adapters and other components.
Feeding cabbage served drip irrigation, is carried out similarly to sprinkling. (No ratings yet)

Beginning summer residents often think that there is nothing difficult about growing cabbage: after all, such excellent heads of cabbage grow in the collective farm fields every year. But when you try to grow cabbage in your dacha, you are often faced with the fact that there is not even close to such a harvest! This happens because important agricultural practices are not followed, which I will tell you about in this article.

If you want to know how to grow a good harvest of cabbage in open ground, be sure to use these five important advice, without which you will not get large and strong heads of cabbage.

1. Temperature

One of the most important mistakes of novice gardeners is that they do not know that cabbage does not tolerate heat and drought. Therefore, you should not plant it in greenhouses or greenhouses! You will get a good cabbage harvest only in open ground. You can grow seedlings in a greenhouse (it’s easier than), and then you must transplant the cabbage seedlings into open ground.

The optimal temperature for cabbage growth is 22 degrees. As the temperature increases, the growth rate of cabbage will slow down, and if the soil also dries out, the plant will stop growing altogether.
Therefore, on very hot days it is necessary to shade the bed; it is recommended to make a canopy for the cabbage so that the plant is in the shade and loses less moisture. The canopy can be made from white spunbond or burlap.

2. Regular watering

Cracking of heads of cabbage is another problem faced by summer residents who water cabbage only once a week, on weekends. Without moisture, the growth of heads of cabbage slows down, but with abundant watering it rapidly accelerates. Too rapid growth of the plant, caused by excess moisture, leads to cracks in the heads of cabbage.
To avoid this, you need to shade the heads of cabbage and mulch the soil. And if after a long drought it rains heavily, it is worth trimming (for example with a shovel) the roots of the plant on one side to reduce the flow of moisture.

3. Soil care

It is very important to loosen the soil once every one to two weeks. It is also worth hilling the plant - this will increase its stability. Early and middle varieties of cabbage can be hilled twice a season, and late varieties - three. The best moment There will be time for hilling after rain or watering, since then the soil will stick well to the stalk of the plant.

4. Pest protection

Another problem you encounter when growing cabbage in open ground is insect pests, which can leave you without a good harvest. We definitely need to fight them!

Available for sale effective drugs to combat cabbage pests. But those who do not want to use chemicals on their site can use the following environmentally friendly method:

A mixture of ash and shag (1:2, one matchbox per 2 sq.m.) has a repellent effect. You need to pollinate the heads of cabbage and the soil under them two to three times a week, but before doing this you should wet the plants - this helps the mixture stick.

5. Feeding

And the last thing without which you cannot grow a good cabbage crop is fertilizing.
After planting cabbage in the ground, you need to feed it! Feeding early varieties carried out twice a season. Average and late varieties need to be fed three to four times throughout the season.
Fertilizers (half a liter of mullein, 30 g of azofoska and 15 g of “Solution” or “Kemira”) should be diluted in 10 liters of water and poured in doses of one liter into each hole.

There is probably not a single vegetable garden that does not grow such a native Russian vegetable crop as cabbage. This vegetable was brought from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, but, despite the diversity of the Russian climate, it has taken root well in our dachas and personal plots. Growing a decent harvest of cabbage is not difficult, but to do this you need to understand what diseases this crop is susceptible to and what pests are not averse to “crunching” cabbage leaves.

In the previous article in the series “Organic farming: biological protection from pests and weeds,” the site talked about what environmental methods of controlling diseases and pests are used in organic farming, and in the article “Diseases and pests of cucumber - protecting yourself without chemicals,” we figured out how to care for cucumbers without using harmful chemicals. Today we’ll talk about growing cabbage, consider methods of biological control of pests and diseases of this crop.

Today there are many types of cabbage. These are well-known white cabbage varieties that were grown back in the days Ancient Rus'. Cauliflower and red cabbage became widespread in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. IN cookbooks At this time, kohlrabi was also mentioned, which was called “repina cabbage”. Varieties such as Brussels sprouts, Savoy sprouts and broccoli began to be grown here in the second half of the last century.

It is not for nothing that cabbage has taken root in our lands with an unstable climate. The peculiarity of this crop is that it easily tolerates frosts down to minus 3 degrees, and Savoy from a temperature of minus 5 becomes even tastier.

Despite the variety of varieties, the agricultural technology for growing each of them is not particularly different. Cabbage loves water very much. At insufficient watering It is almost impossible to grow a good harvest; in addition, when watering it is necessary to maintain uniformity, otherwise the head of cabbage may crack.

It is best to grow cabbage on loamy soils rich in organic matter with neutral acidity, and if the soil is acidic, it is necessary late autumn or in early spring add lime in the proportion of 4-5 kg per 10 sq.m. Such cultivation of the soil is an excellent prevention of most fungal diseases, including such a dangerous disease as cabbage clubroot, the spores of which die in an alkaline environment.

The most suitable fertilizer for any variety of cabbage is rotted cow dung or well-ripened compost. The use of unripe compost or fresh manure makes the leaves watery, tasteless and unstable to various diseases. For a head of cabbage to grow large, it must receive a lot of food. Therefore, even on highly fertile lands, a fairly large amount of cabbage must be applied. organic fertilizer(8-10 buckets of manure or compost per 10 sq.m.). Any species responds well to feeding with fermented infusion of nettle, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:5. The first feeding should be carried out 2-3 weeks after planting the seedlings, and then - at intervals of two weeks 5-6 times.

From cabbage you can prepare a large number of tasty and healthy dishes, many varieties are remarkably stored all winter and are a source of essential vitamins and microelements. However, not only humans love cabbage for its juicy, crunchy leaves. This crop has many pests in the garden that you need to learn how to resist.

Cabbage pests

Various flying and jumping insects sometimes cause a lot of trouble for the gardener. The main dangerous pests of cabbage include: cabbage fly, cruciferous flea beetles and bugs, cabbage fly, and naked slugs.

Cabbage whites

This pest is widespread throughout almost the entire territory of Russia and neighboring countries. The whitefish feeds not only on cabbage, but also on all other cruciferous crops (radish, turnip, radish, watercress and others).

Cabbage butterfly is a butterfly with white wings with a black border. These butterflies feed on flower nectar, mate and lay eggs on the underside of cabbage leaves. The eggs hatch into yellowish-green caterpillars with black spots, which feed on cabbage leaves, leaving only the central veins.

A good effect in the fight against this pest is given by spraying cabbage with a solution of wood ash at the rate of 2 cups of ash and a tablespoon of liquid soap per 10 liters of water.

If there are few caterpillars, they can be collected by hand. Some gardeners in cabbage beds place sticks with eggshell. It is believed that the shell repels cabbage weeds that are about to lay eggs. The butterfly mistakes the shell for similar creatures and “thinks” that the territory is already occupied.

Spraying cabbage beds with an infusion of tomato tops or a decoction of onion peels will repel cabbage whites with an unusual smell, and it will not reproduce in your beds.

Cruciferous flea beetles and bugs

These pests cause significant damage to all cruciferous crops, and cabbage especially suffers from them. Cruciferous flea beetles- These are small black beetles up to 3 mm in size with hopping hind legs. Cruciferous bugs are insects with bright colors - red, yellow or white stripes, spots or lines on a black or green-metallic background.

Fleas and bedbugs are scraped off upper layer leaves and suck out plant juices, causing yellowing, wilting and drying out of cabbage plants. These insects are especially dangerous for seedlings. A large number of pests in the garden can lead to the death of young plants.

A fairly effective means of control during the period of mass appearance of fleas and bedbugs is to pollinate cabbage beds with a mixture of tobacco dust with fluff lime or ash in a 1:1 ratio. This procedure is carried out several times with an interval of 4-5 days. If there are a small number of bedbugs, you can collect them by hand, and to catch fleas, you can place fabric flags coated with non-drying glue on the beds.

Cabbage fly

This dangerous pest is similar to an ordinary house fly. She lays eggs in the ground at the base of the stem, from which the larvae hatch white about 8 mm long. The larvae can move from one plant to another, gnawing the stem and reaching the root along it. Damaged plants become bluish-lilac in color, grow poorly, wither and die.

The main enemy of the cabbage fly and its larvae are predatory insects such as ground beetles, which feed on the larvae of the pest. We talked about how to attract these beneficial insects to our land in the article “Biological protection against pests and weeds.”

The main task in the fight against cabbage fly is to prevent it from laying eggs. To do this, the ground around the plant can be sprinkled with ash or lime (the larvae die in an alkaline environment); you can also build a mechanical barrier in the form of a cardboard collar 10 cm in diameter, which is placed on the base of the stem. This barrier prevents the larvae from reaching the cabbage. Well-mulched soil also serves as protection against cabbage flies, but mulch is an excellent hiding place for slugs and is dangerous to use in cabbage beds.

Naked slugs

Slugs are worm-like mollusks that have sharp tongue with teeth with which they bite into leaves and can eat them to the very base. Slugs become active in rainy, damp weather, feed at night, and during the day they hide under various shelters (boards, piles of branches, grass). If there are a lot of pests on the site, then such shelters can be made artificially in the beds and used as traps, from under which slugs can be collected manually during the day.

To combat slugs, an infusion of hot pepper, prepared according to the following recipe, works well: 1 kg of capsicum is crushed, poured with 10 liters of water and infused for two days. Then it is brought to a boil and left for another day, then the pepper is ground, the resulting mixture is squeezed and filtered. This concentrate can be used immediately, or can be stored sealed in a dark, cool place. To treat cabbage beds, dilute 125 grams of concentrate in 10 liters of water, add 40 grams laundry soap, divorced in hot water, and spray the soil in places where slugs accumulate and feed.

If you sprinkle the soil around the cabbage mustard powder, then slugs will not be able to get into your garden bed; freshly slaked ground lime and a mixture of ash and bleach have the same effect.

Various plants planted near the cabbage will be a good protection against all the pests described above. If you plant garlic around the garden bed, the cabbage fly will never fly to it. Basil, mint, dill, coriander will repel fleas, bedbugs and cabbage whites. And borage with its rough leaves will not allow slugs into the cabbage.

Today, many gardeners use covering nonwoven materials such as lutrasil, spunbond and agril to combat flying pests. Pests simply cannot get to the plants they cover.

Cabbage diseases

No less than from pests, cabbage can suffer from various diseases caused by fungi and other soil microorganisms. These diseases occur during prolonged rainy weather, or due to improper cultivation practices. Most dangerous diseases cabbage are considered: clubroot, yellowness (fusarium wilt), black leg and white rot.

Clubroot cabbage

The most dangerous fungal disease, most often affecting white cabbage and cauliflower. The first signs of the disease are: slowing of growth, yellowing and wilting, growths on the roots various shapes(spherical, vesicular, spindle-shaped). Clubroot most often affects cabbage growing in waterlogged, acidic soil, with insufficient nutrients.

Clubroot cabbage is an insidious disease that is easier to prevent than to treat (damaged plants cannot be saved). Once in your garden, the spores of this fungus can remain there for 6-8 years, and removing them will be extremely problematic. You can introduce clubroot into the soil by planting purchased diseased seedlings. Therefore, when purchasing, you must carefully consider the roots of young plants and try not to purchase seedlings from random people on the market.

To prevent disease, in case of high acidity of the soil, it is necessary to lim it in the fall or spring at the rate of 200-300 grams of fluff lime per 1 sq.m. land. For these purposes, you can use dolomite flour in the same quantities.

Planting seedlings in early dates, since cold earth is less dangerous - keel at low temperatures not developing. To avoid infection, you should not pour fresh manure or compost into the holes; wood ash applied to the soil during planting helps to prevent the disease.

It is important that if the cabbage has been affected by clubroot, then cruciferous plants cannot be planted in the place where it grows for 6 years. Sick plants should not be placed on compost heap, they must be collected and burned.

Blackleg

A fungal disease that affects seed sprouts and young seedlings. The presence of the disease can be determined by the thinning and blackening of the base of the stem with the formation of a characteristic constriction. The stem rots and is easily pulled out of the ground.

The development of the disease can be triggered by high humidity and sharp fluctuations in air temperature, as well as dense plantings and poor ventilation. It should be noted that black leg most often develops on cabbage seedlings grown in greenhouses.

To prevent the occurrence of the disease, the soil must be treated with a raspberry-violet solution of potassium permanganate before planting seeds. To avoid waterlogging while watering seedlings, dusting the soil with sifted ash in a layer of 1-2 cm will help. Sick plants that are spotted should be immediately removed from the garden bed.

Yellowness (fusarium wilt)

This very harmful disease is typical for early varieties of white cabbage and cauliflower; kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts and broccoli can also become infected. The causative agent of the disease is a soil microorganism that penetrates through the roots or damage to the plant into its above-ground part. This makes it difficult for water to move within the crop and the cabbage wilts. This disease is especially dangerous in dry, hot weather. At this time, Fusarium wilt can lead to the complete destruction of your bed. The optimal soil temperature for infection is 15-17 degrees, and the air temperature and humidity special significance for this pathogen they do not have. The main indicator of the development of the disease is the yellow-green color of the leaves and their loss of turgor. Then the diseased leaves fall off, the growth of the head of cabbage slows down and becomes distorted.

If infected plants are found, they should be immediately removed from the garden bed. Unfortunately, today there are no reliable measures to combat this scourge, so scientists have developed varieties that are resistant to yellowness. If you know that an outbreak of this disease is possible in your garden, it is best to use them for growing. The most resistant varieties of white cabbage include: Kolobok, Extra, Triumph, Novator, Valentina and many others; among colored cabbage, Guarantee and Moscow Cannery are especially resistant.

White rot

A fairly common fungal disease that affects most varieties of cabbage. Plants planted on heavy loamy soils are especially affected.

White rot primarily affects the root collar and lower leaves of cabbage. Infected tissues become discolored, appear watery, and a coating of cotton-like white mycelium forms on their surface. Over time, the mycelium becomes denser, turning into large black spots of various shapes. White rot is especially harmful during storage; this disease significantly reduces the “keeping quality” indicators - cabbage infected with this fungus cannot be stored for a long time.

White rot usually progresses during rainy weather or high humidity air in greenhouses. There are no effective measures to combat this disease today, and so far it has not been possible to develop varieties resistant to this disease. Therefore, the main way to prevent the development of white rot is to observe crop rotation and correct agricultural technology when growing cabbage. Later dates for sowing seeds and planting seedlings intended for seed purposes will help reduce the vulnerability of plants. Harvesting cabbage before frost will protect the crop from developing disease during storage. If foci of infection are detected, both in beds and in cellars and other vegetable storage areas, they should be immediately removed and destroyed by burning.

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One of the most popular vegetable crops is cabbage. The cultivation of this plant was carried out by the ancient peoples of Rome, Egypt and Greece. For the first time, a vegetable was brought to our lands from Europe during Kievan Rus, after which it became one of my favorite products, which it remains to this day.
Several popular subspecies of cabbage are used for food: white cabbage, cauliflower, Peking cabbage, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts.

Growing white cabbage: important features

Nowadays, white cabbage is the most popular. This cabbage perfectly combines adaptation to our climatic conditions with ease of cultivation and high nutritional value. It contains a very large amount of vitamin C, as well as potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron salts. In addition, it is rich in vitamins B1, B2, B6, E, H, K, U and phytoncides. Cabbage juice, due to the content of the above-mentioned phytoncides, has bactericidal, bacteriostatic and antiviral properties. It is intended to relieve symptoms of rheumatic pain and to treat stomach ulcers (vitamin U also helps here). That's why healing properties white cabbage are priceless.

White cabbage is a biennial plant that in its first year produces a head of large spiral leaves, called the head, which is the edible part. In the second year, the cabbage produces seeds and fruit shoots. It is a typical temperate climate vegetable and will withstand temperatures as low as -5°C, but it grows best in the range of 15-18°C. Temperatures exceeding 30°C slow head formation.

Although cabbage has been growing in our climate for a long time, it requires large quantity precipitation (above 600 mm) and high humidity. Therefore, cabbage always requires proper irrigation. This does not apply to early varieties, which use the remaining water in the soil in the spring. The greatest water requirements for cabbage are during the period of setting a head of cabbage.

White cabbage prefers clay soils, but grows well on black soil and loam. Don't grow it in soils that are too heavy because you won't get correct size and head shapes, while being lightweight sandy soils too dry for cabbage and the water evaporates too quickly.

Cabbage cannot be grown in the same place for more than 4 years. It grows well after clover, potatoes, cucumbers and celery. White cabbage has the highest nutritional requirements for micronutrients of all vegetables. Cabbage suffers greatly from magnesium deficiency, so special attention should be paid to the form and amount of magnesium fertilizer used.

How to properly grow cabbage seedlings

Vegetables from our own garden are a good addition to our table. Among the vegetables that will delight us with a stable harvest is white cabbage. Cabbage varieties grow from one hundred to one hundred and twenty days. Traditionally, cabbage seedlings are planted to speed up the harvest. To plant in open ground, cabbage seedlings must be between forty-five and fifty days old.

When to plant cabbage seeds for seedlings

Before choosing a cabbage variety and starting sowing, you need to determine the date when to plant cabbage seedlings. It's not hard to calculate. We need two numbers:

date of planting cabbage seedlings in the garden;
seedling age.

If the weather is favorable and you plan to plant seedlings in the ground on the first of May, the seeds for seedlings should be planted in the middle or at the end of March. As you can see, the formula is simple. Subtract forty-five or fifty days from the date of planting the cabbage in the beds. This way we will get the date when cabbage seedlings can be planted.

Preparing cabbage seeds for seedlings

Select cabbage seeds for planting according to variety and expected maturity. Early cabbage intended for consumption raw, mid-season - for harvesting and preservation, and late varieties are perfectly stored throughout the winter.

The quality of the harvest largely depends on the condition of the seeds. First dip them in a solution of salt (1 tsp) and water (0.5 l). The material that floats up must be discarded, and the material that has sunk to the bottom of the jar must be dried. It will be used for planting seedlings. It is also recommended to disinfect seeds before sowing to destroy harmful and pathogenic microorganisms. One of the following methods is suitable for this:

wrap the seed in several layers of cotton fabric and dip it in water heated to 46-48 °C for 20-25 minutes;
soak the seeds for 1 hour in a mixture of crushed garlic (1 tbsp) and heated water (200 g), then rinse;
Dip the seeds in a solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes.

After disinfection, be sure to dry the seeds. Prepare a light soil mixture of ash, sand, peat or humus, and turf soil. You can also purchase ready-made land for growing seedlings.

Sowing seeds for seedlings

Stages of planting seedlings:

pour the soil into the prepared containers in a layer of no more than 3-4 cm;
make grooves up to 1 cm deep, irrigate them generously with water;
place the seeds in the grooves at a distance of 1 cm, crush them with soil, and lightly compact them;
Cover the containers with film and leave at a temperature of up to 20 °C.

Shoots usually appear on the 5th day after planting. As soon as you see them, remove the film and reduce the temperature to 8 ° C to slow down intensive growth, which will only worsen the quality of the seedlings at this stage.

Caring for cabbage seedlings

Cabbage seedlings need careful care. Throughout the growing period, follow the recommendations:

the optimal temperature is 8 °C at night and 15 °C during the day;
lightly irrigate the soil in containers as the top layer dries;
provide 12 hours of lighting daily;
make sure that the seedlings are not affected by pests or diseases;
1.5-2 weeks after emergence, pick the seedlings into separate containers (if the seeds were initially sown in a separate container, picking is not required);
a week after the dive, feed the seedlings with a nutrient mixture of water (1 l) and superphosphate (5 g), ammonium nitrate (3 g), potassium feed (3 g);
Irrigate the soil with water before applying fertilizer;
2 weeks after the first feeding, and immediately before transplanting the seedlings into the soil, re-apply the fertilizer.

Planting cabbage seedlings in open ground

When early ripening seedlings produce 6-7 leaves and stretch to 13-18 cm in height, they can be planted in open ground. This usually happens in early May. For mid- and late-ripening varieties, 4 leaves are enough. Planting is carried out from the last days of May to mid-June, and from mid to late May, respectively.
The planting site should be well lit, the soil should not be acidic - sandy and loam (for early varieties), clay or loam (for mid- and late-ripening varieties). The beds should not be dense; leave a distance of 40-60 cm between the bushes.
Planting stages:

dig holes slightly larger than a glass in which the seedlings are planted;
Place a nutrient mixture at the bottom of the holes: 200 g of peat and sand, 400 g of humus, 50 g of ash, 3 g of nitrophoska;
water the fertilizers with plenty of water;
lower the seedling together with the earthen ball into the hole, sprinkle with soil, and compact it.

As necessary, cover the seedlings from the sun or frost with a light cloth or paper, and water daily in the evening.

Cabbage care

In hot weather, mature cabbage sprouts need to be watered abundantly - at least once every 2-3 days. In cool weather, it is necessary to reduce watering to once every 5 days. Regularly loosen the soil around the bushes, hill them, and remove weeds. You can add a 6-centimeter layer of peat mulch - this will improve the nutritional value of the soil and maintain optimal moisture.
After planting in open ground, fertilize the cabbage twice:

during the period of intensive leaf growth - a solution from a bucket of water and 10 g of ammonium nitrate (based on 6 cabbage bushes);
during the period of cabbage formation - a bucket of water with the addition of urea (3-4 g), superphosphate (5 g), potassium sulfate (7-8 g) (based on 6 cabbage bushes).

Monitor the condition of the cabbage during the growth period. Sprinkling with tobacco dust and ash will help against slugs, and aphids will be destroyed by an infusion of tomato tops or onion peels with the addition of tar soap. For cabbage with formed heads, it is not advisable to spray with chemicals, as this will affect the quality of the product.

Cabbage pest control

All gardeners who put their heart and effort into sowing, planting and caring for vegetables must be prepared to protect their wards from diseases and pests. The sad fact is that there are many dangers awaiting your delicious vegetables. It’s good to get to know the aggressor in advance in order to prepare to protect plants properly and on time. Nobody wants to use chemicals again in their garden. We invite you to learn about simple organic methods for protecting cabbage.

Cabbage fly (Delia radicum) - favorite place for laying eggs is loose soil- females lay eggs on the root neck of the cabbage, and then the larvae feed on the underground parts of the cabbage. Plants whose roots were attacked by cabbage fly larvae quickly died. To protect the cabbage, we must close off access to the soil around its roots:

When you plant cabbage seedlings in open ground, we always firmly compact the soil around the root collar with our hands.
When sowing cabbage seedlings at the base of the root collar, we place mats made of cardboard or old carpeting. You can also use an old CD for this purpose.
We place a fine white micro-mesh on the cabbage itself, which will not allow pests to enter from the air.
Between the beds we plant plants such as lettuce, dill or calendula to deceive the cabbage fly.

Birds They will peck at the tender juicy leaves of your cabbage seedlings. And thus, she can completely die. To protect cabbage from birds, we must make it difficult to access the plants:

For example, using any scarecrow - we attach it to a stick plastic tape, which produces rustling sounds at the slightest wind;
You can use the same micro mesh or any other network;
To confuse birds in the aisles, we plant lettuce, dill or marigolds.

Cabbage butterfly (Pieris brassicae) - famous white butterfly, whose caterpillars especially like to feed on cabbage. Females of the first generation lay eggs mainly on wild crops, but in July-August the next generation of butterflies prefers cabbage. Let's try to prevent butterflies from laying eggs on plants, and when caterpillars appear, let's remove them regularly:

Use micro mesh in the beds;
Use bioprotection in the form of bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis;
We plant lettuce, dill or calendula between the rows to confuse the butterflies.
Nasturtiums are a favorite food of cabbage caterpillars, so by planting them close to the cabbage we can lure the caterpillars out of the cabbage beds.

Leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) - appear in the garden on dry and hot days and leave characteristic small holes on the leaves. To scare them away we can:

Always keep the soil moist;
Use micro mesh;
Plant lettuce, dill or marigold between rows to weaken fleas.
Plant radishes in the corners of a cabbage bed to "pull" fleas out of it - we will still only be eating its root, and the radish leaves can be sacrificed for the benefit of the cabbage;
Strongly aromatic herbs such as thyme or mint can mask the smell of cabbage and deceive fleas;

Cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae) Cabbage beds arrive in early June and quickly take over the leaves of the plants they are destroying. Here is a proposal for ecological control of cabbage aphids:

Due to the fact that pests overwinter in the egg stage on the remains of plants left in the garden, always try to remove and destroy any remains of collected plants;
In the fight against cabbage aphids, biological weapons are seven-colored larvae ladybug. To lure these beneficial insects into the garden, we plant among the rows of cabbage, umbrella plants, for example, dill, coriander, fennel, cumin.
There are many recipes for fighting aphids using folk remedies. The cheapest and effective remedy- vinegar. Spray the cabbage with a solution of 200 g of vinegar per bucket of water plus 40 g of soap, making sure to treat bottom part leaf.

Unfortunately, folk remedies do not always give 100% results in pest control, so it is very important point is prevention: full cleaning garden from plant remains in the fall, spring digging and systematic weeding.

Cabbage harvesting

Harvest when the night temperature starts to drop to -2-(-3)°C. Stop watering a few days before. Dig up the plant with roots, divide by size. After 24 hours, cut the stalks 2-3 cm below the head of cabbage, leaving a few lower leaves. Store whole cabbage in a dry cellar or basement; use damaged heads immediately.

For a crop such as white cabbage, cultivation must be carried out according to all the rules, ensuring the absence of diseases and pests on the leaves. By carefully caring for the sprouts, you will get an excellent harvest, which will become a source of vitamins throughout the year.