Caring for cabbage after planting in a permanent location

Cabbage is a necessary vegetable in the home: borscht wouldn't be borscht without it, you can't make cabbage rolls without it, a fresh cabbage salad is also delicious, both in taste and nutritional value, and sauerkraut takes pride of place on our tables almost all year round. So let's explore the topic: caring for cabbage after planting it in its permanent location, and what steps we should take to ensure a bountiful harvest and winter supplies of this most beneficial vegetable.
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To grow good cabbage, you need to properly care for it even as a seedling—feeding, watering, and so on. After planting it in its permanent location, these cares continue; caring for the growing cabbage should be even more meticulous. Incidentally, a good way to both enrich the soil and protect early cabbage is to plant green manure crops, such as rye, mustard, alfalfa, and so on, in the fall in the area where you plan to grow cabbage in the spring. In the fall, if planted at the end of August, the green manure will sprout into a green mass that should be dug into the ground with the onset of frost. In the spring, the remaining green manure crops, closer to the surface, will turn green and sprout, and cabbage can be planted between them. They will also provide shelter from the scorching sun, and the soil will be enriched and prepared over the winter.

You can plant cabbage seeds directly into the hole if you wait until the second half of June. Add compost to the hole, bury a bottomless cup to protect against mole crickets, sticking a couple of centimeters above the ground, and place the seeds in the hole. Water gently with a watering can until sprouts appear, then reduce the watering once the seedlings emerge. Cabbage generally doesn't like too much water—it will become tough in the foliage, and the head will develop into a small one.

Watering

Caring for cabbage after planting in its permanent location includes mandatory, but infrequent, watering. Overwatering your cabbage will encourage diseases, attract pests, and you won't get a good harvest. Experienced gardeners recommend watering immediately after planting, then a light overhead irrigation three days later, then applying a mineral fertilizer to the roots and spraying the foliage with a pesticide. If you notice any signs of disease on the lower leaves, remove them immediately.

Hilling

Once your seedlings have established themselves in the open air, hill them up, raking in soil within a 25-centimeter radius. This will help the cabbage establish itself, as its stems are thin and weak. Hilling will strengthen the stems and root system. After six weeks, hill them up a second time, removing the lower leaves. Ideally, do this after a heavy rain, once the top layer of soil has dried out.

Top dressing

Two weeks after transplanting the seedlings into the garden, fertilize them with organic matter. Slurry diluted with water is suitable. Then, three weeks later, fertilize with mullein diluted with water. Seedlings, by the way, also require additional feeding: as soon as the second leaf appears, feed them with urea and spray the leaves with potassium sulfate. Kemire-Universal can also be used, and Polifi-SL has proven effective.

By following these simple tips, you can grow large and healthy cabbage, to the delight of your family.
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