CABBAGE PRODUCTION GUIDE

Introduction

Cabbage it is an herbaceous biennial with leaves that form a compact head. This so called cabbage head
is widely consumed raw, cooked or preserved in a great variety of dishes.

Cabbage are one of the earliest plants that you can plant and if the right varieties of cabbage are chosen
it can even store for months after harvest ends. The kind cabbage that you grow depends on what you
prefer and what kind of climate zone you live in.

Climatic requirements

 It is a cool weather crop. Cabbage grows best in regions where there is a long cool growing
season with temperature between 7-24 degrees Celsius
 It tolerates frost and can bolt and go to seed in temperatures that are greater than 26 degrees
Celsius.

Soil requirements

 It grows well drained loam soils which are high in organic matter and with pH 6.0-7.5
 Can also tolerate slightly alkaline soils.
Cabbage is a heavy feeder therefore you have to ensure that there is consistently a lot of
moisture when planting cabbage.

Varieties

 The popular varieties are Riana ,star 3001,CH Market and drum head under good management
these take 90-100days to mature an d should weigh 1.5-3kg /head with yield potential of 60-
120tons per hectare

Other varieties include:

Golden acre
 this one matures in 65 days
 Resistant to yellowing diseases
 Does well in full sun and needs soil that has amended with organic matter

Gonzales Cabbage
 Matures in 55 days
 Produces deep blue green sized heads

Just to mention a few

New varieties are continuously being produced, and therefore it is important to keep up to date
with these, as the new ones always have an advantage over the old varieties in yield and
agronomic traits
How to grow cabbages

 Soils rich in organic matter that are well drained are ideal. Prepare the planting beds ahead of
planting by covering beds 5-7cm of compost or organic planting mix and turn it under 12cm
deep
 Add well incorporated compost mature to planting beds before planting and in areas where you
have sandy soils or heavy rains you can add nitrogen to the soil (nitrogen-rich blood meal or
cotton seed meal) to the soil for leaf growth enhancement.
 Sow seeds in seedbeds 4-6 weeks before the last frost.
 Transplant when they are 7-10cm tall
 In cool summer areas plant in late spring for a fall harvest

Planting and spacing

 The seed rate is 0.5kg -2kg per hectare

 Cabbage seeds should be sown at the depth 2.5cm apart and when its thinning time, thin plants
to 40-60cm apart
 Nursery period is about 20-30days
 Planting depth for the seedlings after transplanting is 20cm deep on a fine tilth
 Transplant the seedlings 4-6 weeks after planting and should have 4-5 true leaves
 Put leggy or crooked stem plants deeply and bury them to 2.5cm -5cmof the main stem even
just below the top two leaves
 The spacing should be 40-60cm apart and in rows 60-90cm apart.
 The plant population should be 40000 per hectare

Irrigation

 Water the cabbage regular because uneven watering can results in stunted or cracked heads.
Give at least 60.5litres of water to each cabbage head every week
 As the plants reach maturity reduce on watering to avoid splitting heads.

Care for Cabbage

 Mulch around the cabbage more especially in warm weather in order t preserve the soil
moisture and keep the soil cool
 In order to prevent cabbage head from splitting when the grow too fast, twist heads a quarter
turn to separate some roots and interrupt water uptake a week in advance before harvest.

Fertilizer usage
  4 days after transplanting applying apply 150kg/lima or 15g/plant of veg mix b
 21 days after transplanting apply veg top at the rate of 25/lima at the rate of 2.5g/plant.
 35 days after planting you can re-apply veg top 25kg/lima
 63 days after planting repeat applying veg top 25kg/lima
 The fertilizer should be placed 3cm deed and 5cm away from the plant followed by irrigation

Major pest and diseases in cabbage

Altenaria leaf spot

 Yellow spots that grow larger and develop ring rings

Control for alternaria leaf spot start with good agricultural practices that include crop rotation,
drip irrigation, removing dead plant material etc. biopestcides that may prove effective include
bacillus amyloliquefaciens and bacillus subtilis

Bacterial leaf spot

 Dark flecks on the leaves that spread into lesions

 You can prevent and control it by planting heated-treated seeds, good irrigation practices, crop
rotation etc.
Bacterial soft rot

 This is one of the damaging plant diseases known throughout the word
 First sign is the appearing of water soaked lesions
 It is spread by splashing water, gardening tools and through insects like cabbage maggots.
You can minimize the changes of your cabbage being attacked by avoiding harvesting cabbage in
wet conditions

Black rot

 The first sign is yellowing of the leaf margins, which then spread to the center of the leaf
 This disease can get worse during storage
 It is spread by insects,irrigation,rain and gardening equipment
 Crop rotation will help protect infection against this attack
Bottom rot

 A wide spread soil-borne fungus

 The symptoms are brown lesions on the
outer leaves
 There are no controls available once
an infections starts
 Planting on raised beds will help you protect your crop because the soil will typically drain better
than it would if you were to plant directly in the ground.

Downy mildew

 It’s a serious disease that start as lesion on the upper surface of the leaves while the bottom
surfaces have white gray mass of fungi spores that can be seen.
 It’s particular a problem in areas with wet and mild winters
 You can prevent it by removing cruciferous weeds and giving plants plenty of space to grow
rather too packing them too tightly together.
 Plant your crop in the spring and harvest in summer
Phytophora root rot

 Symptoms include discolorations of the margins of the leaves

 Changing to red and purple as the roots die
 Anything that promotes drainage will help prevent this attack eg raising beds or cultivating the
soil at planting time

Damping off

 Young seedlings wilt and die

Control by using treated seeds and let the soil dry out between watering
Major pests in cabbage

Aphids

 Suck on sap causing infested foliage curl,wilt or become distorted

 Control spray with soapy water solution and apply insecticides such as carbofuran planting

Cabbage looper

 Feed on the leaves causing irregular ,rigged holes and bore through heads and
contaminate the heads
 Manage this by removing and destroying all plant debris after harvesting
 Hand pick and destroy the larvae
Cabbage Sawfly

 Feed on leaves and typically eat all except the veins of the leaf causing skeletonization
 Management include;
 Spraying with neem
 Handpick and kill caterpillars

Cabbage root maggot

 Eat the lateral roots, the tunnel into the tap roots and sometimes bore into the base of
the stem
 Management of these pests include;
 Destroying crop residues as maggots can survive in them for a longtime
 Mulch with dried grasses
 Plough the field and expose pupae to natural enemies
 include;
 Thinning plants once established
Cabbage flea beetles

 Feed on the seedlings usually on the underside of the leaves leaving numerous small
,round or irregular shaped holes
 Management plant seeds in a well prepared seed bed because most of the seedlings are
at risk.

Diamond black moth

 Very destructive to crops

 Infest the underside of cabbage leaves. The adult is a white butterfly
 You can use riazophos, profenofos, methamidophos , pyrethroids (fenvalerate and
deltamethrin) and carbamate insecticides (bendiocarb) for its control

Cut worms

 Cause damage to cabbage stems and foliage.

 Common pesticides effective against cutworms are carbaryl, cyfluthrin and permethrin.
Harvesting

Cabbage heads that are harvested too soon or too late do not have as much nutritional value as
those harvested at the appropriate time in the plant’s growth cycle. Some varieties of cabbage
have a very narrow window of time in which they need to be harvested, with just a few days in
which the optimal harvesting time can be met. Other varieties can go several weeks in the
garden without beginning to deteriorate as long as the weather allows them

The right time to harvest your cabbage plants will depend on the variety of cabbage that you
planted, the weather conditions that they grew in and when the heads naturally mature. The
size of the heads will not tell you whether they are ripe for picking or not, as cabbage head sizes
vary greatly from one to the next. The firmness of the heads, instead, is what will indicate that
your cabbage plants are ready to harvest.

When squeezed, the heads of your cabbage plants should be firm all the way through. The
heads should be full and firm, with not too much give when you squeeze it. If the heads look full
but feel a little soft when you squeeze them, let them mature for a few more days before
harvesting. Looks can often be deceiving and cabbage heads may feel firm on the outside on
the inside are still loose and flimsy. A good forceful squeeze on all sides of the head should let
you know if it’s solid all the way through. If the heads feel solid and tightly formed, they are
ready for harvest.

Use a sharp, stainless steel knife to harvest your cabbage. Using stainless steel is important
because the carbon on other metals react with the phytonutrients in cabbage and cause the
skin to turn black from contact. Use your sharp, stainless steel knife to cut through the stem
just below the head.

Prepared by Mm