Last edited by shiny on 10 Nov 2026. View history
Cabbage
A variety of Brassica oleracea
How to sow cabbage: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off.
Sun requirement for cabbage: Plant in Full Sun
Cabbage is a member of the Brassica family and related to kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. It's dense, layered heads grow on stalks and are surrounded by looser outer leaves. It's leaves can be green, white, or purple in color, and smooth or crinkly in texture. Depending on the variety, the head can be round, oblong, or flat. Cabbage prefers cooler temperatures and is best planted in the spring or fall.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For cabbage, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 750 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your cabbage will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by CloCkWeRX,
This year I accidentally produced approximately 6 billion cabbages. This immediately lead to problems, as not wanting to waste anything and reading that all parts are edible, I set about home canning, freezing and doing about every variation of stuffing something into a cabbage,…
cabbages
by shiny,
There's so much baking going on here, stuck at home under the nationwide pandemic lockdown – and when we can get eggs we end up with many eggshells. These can be crushed and placed around the base of brassica like cabbage and broccoli. Snails and slugs do…
cabbages
broccoli
by shiny,
Due to the pandemic lockdown, I can't go to the hardware store to get things. I've been in semi-isolation since the start of march, and we've been in nationwide lockdown since last week.
I needed to set up the nets to keep out the white butterfly. I've had to be creative and i…
cabbages
broccoli
by maco,
Today I transplanted the cabbage and onion seedlings outside and planted seeds for: arugula, garlic (well, cloves, not seeds–forced in the fridge), mesclun salad mix, kale, cauliflower, and …
cabbages
onions
arugula
garlic
kale
cauliflowers
beets
apples
peaches
almonds
plums
by maco,
I've got seeds either on-hand or ordered for just about everything I'm starting from seed this year. I've been working out what I want to plant, and this is the plan I've come up with for the 72 square feet of my backyard raised beds:
eggplants
garlic
kale
lettuces
onions
oregano
parsley
Hungarian wax peppers
bell peppers
zucchini
yellow summer squash
butternut squash
sweet potatoes
tomatoes
super sweet 100 tomatoes
chamomiles
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Brassica oleracea var. capitata L. [Alef.]
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Capparales Cruciferae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -10 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | biennial |
| Habit | acaulescent (or rosette plants) |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
cumin
blue lake bean
Photos
CloCkWeRX harvested 1.
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