The first cabbage that we grown from seeds is Earliball variety which is a hybrid and small size cabbage suitable for gardener who has small space to grow. Earliball can be grown all year round. This variety is also very suitable to be grown in containers and we have some success growing this cabbage in container.
The biggest cabbage head that we managed to harvest was about 12cm diameter across the cabbage head. Although it is small, you might think it will be ready to be harvested quicker than the normal cabbage variety, we found this is not the case. For example in autumn, we planted cabbage earlier than the sprouting broccoli but broccoli produce the head first and cabbage was just starting to form head. Growing cabbage is easier to manage in June~August where it is too cold for the white cabbage butterfly to make an appearance. So the cabbage look much more better than the one grown in warm weather, less artistic design from caterpillar and you only worry about snail and slug. Personally, I think growing broccoli and cauliflower are much more easier than cabbage. I wish for nets but with the layout it is not that easy to set it up in our place. One more thing that I observe from this patch is not to grow cineraria near the brassica as it is also a favourite playground for the caterpillars just look at those leaves.
When they are small it is easy to check underneath the leaves whether they are butterfly eggs or not. But when they already grown so many leaves its hard to check every single leaf. I tried chili spray but it is not effective.
Sometime the earliball cabbage produce the size of a tennis ball or even brussels sprout which made me think I better plant brussels sprout rather than this variety. Considering the time and space to grow this variety, I don’t think it is worth to grow it anymore. I thought of not growing any cabbage this cool season but I just called my mama and she said my brother asked why I did not give him any cabbage seeds from all the seeds I sent back home because it is one of his favourite vegetables. Now, I have an excuse to buy cabbage seeds for autumn planting and give some to my brother. No more hybrid cabbage they give mixed results. I am still undecided which type of cabbage to grow, I think I can afford to grow medium size cabbage since I have expand our space to grow by using the space at the other side of our backyard fence. Or if I am ambitious a big one.LOL. Earliball cabbage in the stage of forming head.
After the first time we grown our cabbage we dare not buy any cabbage at the market again as we experience it is not easy to grow perfect cabbage without using any chemicals. Maybe under nets it will be easier to grow them. Even in organic stalls it is written that cabbages they are selling use minimal spray. I prefer our ugly cabbage than the one that has sprayed. Cabbage is one of the vegetables that I am not good at growing it.
Cm tak pernah tanam pokok kobis tapi my jiran ada tanam dan sungguh subur menghasilkan kobis yg agak lumayam:).Pstt nampak gayanya pokok pokok karot yg Cm tanam dulu dah mula membesar:)seronok sangat dan pokok pokok timun yg Cm tanam dalam bekas polystrene tu dah mula berbunga.Terima kasih Diana kerana anda adalah sumber inspirasi untuk Cm berkebun.
ReplyDeleteYour earlyballs are beautiful! But I recommend you glow bigger cabbages if you have more space. In my case, I have grown midum sized cabbages and it took about 3 months to harvest them but bigger cabbages have bigger outer leaves so even if bugs found on the cabbages, the leaves could be too big for them to eat up while smaller leaves of smaller cabbages might be eaten up soon by them. I found young worms of cabbage butterflies in my cabbages but cabbage balls were intact thanks to bigger outer leaves. Eventually I was able to minimize the amount of pesticide with using insect screen.
ReplyDeleteHi Diane
ReplyDeleteI am just glad and happy that the letter arrived safe and sound. I really admire you, mother to 2 kids, studying still, gardening and blogging at the same time :)
My kid is also into mango, currently crazy abt Yugioh and Naruto
CikManggis~Cepat pokok timun tu dah mula bunga, jantan ke betina?Nanti boleh jadi matchmaker. Bolehlah semai benih karot yang baru nanti banyak supply untuk dapur.
ReplyDeletetakaeko~Thank you for sharing your experience in growing cabbage. I will grow bigger cabbages now.
cinafong~Naruto is very famous and it is still ongoing. I have not read it yet but my siblings does.
wow.. so beautiful..
ReplyDeleteI tried to plant cabbage before.. unfortunately.. the ball did not forming well until the plant died.. may be the weather...
Very nice photos! When I try to grow cabbage, I have to Battle the aphids and the caterpillars.
ReplyDeleteWe have to cover our cabbages with netting to protect firstly from pigeons and then the butterflies but being on an allotment that is OK - you don't really want nets all over your garden. We have avideo clip on this page of our website which shows why the caterpillars make short work of cabbages!
ReplyDeleteI love your new header!! Pretty! Beautiful cabbage! I love the name! I had a problem with those pesky catepillars last year too. Just when I thought I had them under control...boom, they were back.
ReplyDeleteI tried growing cabbage once, the head is so small and it stays that way for more than half a year. I finally pull it out and there are only about four or five layers! How can it remain that way for more than half a year, I do not understand! You have sparked my interest in growing them again! He! He! So many plants to grow yet no space! Pening kepala! All the seeds I'm having now has got to queue up for their turn!
ReplyDeleteNot very good at growing cabbage? But i see you have a lot to harvest! Ok la eaten by snails or slugs is not your fault.. Cabbage, cauliflower and brocoli, none of the seeds sprout in my garden :(
ReplyDeleteI saw cabbage planted in containers grown by a nursery owner. I forgot to ask if he sells seeds for those cabbage. They look really good.
ReplyDeleteAs for cabbage from the market. I like to get those with tighter leave and rounder ones. They say those are Beijing cabbage... In any case, you are right, vege from the market is definitely sprayed with pesticides...
That's healthy looking cabbage despite all the art work by caterpillars!
ReplyDeleteHow long it takes to harvest a cabbage?
good luck with the cabbages mkg. if they don't work i guess there are lots of other green veg. cheers, cm
ReplyDeleteSometimes the mini plants don't turn out to be worth the space and time they take, you just have to try out a few varieties untill you find the one that does best I guess, good luck. :)
ReplyDeleteI think that I am giving up on growing cabbage. In the past 2 years I harvested only one cabbage and it takes up so much space. Your cabbages look very nice.
ReplyDeleteI can see lots of caterpillars in your garden, all the leaves have holes! I love to try cabbage later in my veggie plot but Im scared there will lots of caterpillars after that!
ReplyDeleteCathJ~ I also have some cabbage that did not form head.
ReplyDeletePatricia~ Aphid is also one of the cause of growing cabbage become a big challenge for us too.
Sue~Why does pigeon attack your cabbages? It is a wonder how fast those caterpillar can digest with all the leaves they ate.
Holly~ Yes with cabbages the problem is hard to get rid off when you think no more caterpillars than aphid than caterpillar again. Sigh.
Kitchen Flavours~Maybe try to grow many thing vertically so you can save space this way especialy with the one the has tendrils. You can grow cucumber/pumpkin/melon vertically. Can also grow many things per-container this save space. For example spring onions with carrot together grow well.
Milka~Try sowing them in different month and see which month/season they like. Maybe they prefer raining or kemarau or a little of both who knows;-).
Stephanie~ I admire savoy cabbage, it has wrinkled leaves but I dare not buy them anymmore. Or my cousin which is more like a mother to my boys will membebel to me.
Malar~ The harvesting time varies. Although in the seed packet it is written that we can harvest earliball cabbage like 80days. But I sowed the cabbage seeds in July for the 3rd photo and I only harvested one of them this month. The other 2 is just starting to form head. That is already half a year!
Catmint~ Lucky I got the other greens. But sometimes I just miss eating coleslow so I tried growing just a few of cabbage at a time.
Kat~No more small cabbage for me going to try bigger one now.What cabbage does well in your place Kat, I really like to know.
Ana~I planted a few but more than half of them don't form head. Each season I thought of giving it up but I have a constant debate in my head with the one having wings and one having tail.
p3chandan~It is hard to break up caterpillar with cabbage Kak Shidah. Although it is hard to grow them perfectly, the taste of fresh home-grown cabbage and Cameron HIghland one is very different. You might one to grow caterpillar and aphid repellent plant surrounding the cabbage;-)
Wood Pigeons commonly strip brassica plants Diana. I don't know whether you have them or not so if you don't know what they look like there is a photo on this page They are large birds and quickly can do lots of damage
ReplyDeleteIt's alright.... can always try again. I was lucky with cabbages last year..
ReplyDeleteI've never grown cabbages! Maybe thanks to you I'll try some this year. :) I think we live pretty close so we should have the same weather conditions.
ReplyDeleteSue~ We don't have any wood pigeons aroung the neighbourhood. But it does come out as surprise that this bird can do that to brassica.
ReplyDeleteBangchik~ Yeah will try again. Just need to find one which will suit our place here.
Kat~It is much easier to grow cabbage when the caterpillars mother is not in sight which will be around June-July. Just have to worry about snail and slug during that period. Yes we live pretty close maybe what kind of plant thrive in our place or your place will work for both of us:).
Oh that's lovely! I know exactly how ugly no-chemical veggies can look. But its the taste and goodness in it that matters more, right?
ReplyDeleteYou can try spraying them with diluted neem oil. Terrific stuff! The pests that feed on the neem oil-sprayed plants soon lose interest in eating and propagating and die. But it doesn't harm you or the beneficial insects.
Or you can put up sticky traps to get rid of fying pests. Use marigolds to drive away pests... there are a lot of techniques used by no-chemical farmers the world over. A walk through Google may help you find some of them.
Sunita~Thank you so much for this wonderful tips. I have not herard of neem oil before but I will try to find some information about it through google.
ReplyDelete