Who grows Spring cabbages?
Which ones do you grow and when do you sow them please?
Now for the difficult question................ could you sow any cabbage now and eat it in spring as a looseleaved cabbage and leave some to heart up for summer?
As you know, I don't have much success with brassicas but feel the need to try!
I've grown Spring Hero F1 (ballhead cabbage) and Winter Jewel F1 (spring greens), both great varieties. There are some good overwintering pointed types too like Duncan and April, though I've not tried them. Sow them now and plant them out in October. They'll take a battering and look awful over winter but as the days get longer in February they grow quickly. Spring Hero will form a good heart by April but you can eat both as loose greens. Slugs absolutely love munching their way in to cabbage heads so maybe loose leaf is better anyway.
Not sure if it would work with any cabbage, they have to be winter hardy.
I’m with you veggie. I’ve never tried spring cabbage growing. I really enjoy eating spring greens. So I definitely should try growing them. I’ll join you veggie
.
Thanks TMTT. I’ve got some April seeds
I've tried and failed with cabbages of any sort. The pests got more than I did. I believe they enjoyed them though.
(31-08-2022, 11:46 PM)toomanytommytoes Wrote: [ -> ]I've grown Spring Hero F1 (ballhead cabbage) and Winter Jewel F1 (spring greens), both great varieties. There are some good overwintering pointed types too like Duncan and April, though I've not tried them. Sow them now and plant them out in October. They'll take a battering and look awful over winter but as the days get longer in February they grow quickly. Spring Hero will form a good heart by April but you can eat both as loose greens. Slugs absolutely love munching their way in to cabbage heads so maybe loose leaf is better anyway.
Not sure if it would work with any cabbage, they have to be winter hardy.
Thanks TMTT - that's my job for today sorted - and I don't mean buying the seeds.
I always grow Durham Early and Offenham 2. I have grown Spring Hero before as well.
The idea is that you plant them reasonably close together (say 6 inches apart) and harvest alternate plants as spring greens. Why they are called spring cabbage I have no idea as the seed I sowed August 21 are being used as cabbages now, so they are in the ground for a full year (similar to PSb in that respect)
I also have my austurian tree cabbage growing but I am not sure when the harvesting period for these is supposed to be. I don't grow summer cabbage as I just cut a cross in the top of harvested SC and get smaller pointy cabbes just right for me.
I have net years crop sown now, some in early August and some only last week.These will be transpalanted into areas that didn't have brassicas growing in them this year.
Thanks for your advice, folks.
I've sown Durham Early, Wheelers Imperial, April and Winterjewel - all well past their sow by date, so I've sown lots in the hope of getting one of each.
Completely forgot to do sow mine. I’ll have to do it Monday. Busy working & building till then.
Question is where am I going to loan t them when they’re ready to go out ? Here or Bradan? Decisions decisions
Just as an adjunct, in the past I have sccessfully grown spring cabbage in pots in the greenhouse over winter. A good way to get some winter usage from the greenhouse and results in earlier maturing and clean plants.
I grew a Hispi cabbage in the GH for a couple of years - the same Hispi perennialised !
It grew tall, fell over and the stalk rooted into the soil and produced little Hispi babies along its length. Maybe I'll try that again this year.