Red cabbage - growing and care

The difference between white and red cabbage in color and chemical composition. Red cabbage is stored much better, while maintaining all the beneficial properties.

Red cabbage varieties

Like most cruciferous plants, red cabbage varieties can be early-ripening, mid-ripening, and late.

The highest taste and shelf life of such varieties as Kalibos, Auto, Rubin MS, Gako.

Based on the characteristics, every gardener will be able to choose the most suitable red cabbage variety. The appearance of red cabbage (photo) is usually illustrated on the seed package.

• Pallet is a late ripening red cabbage variety (150 days). Head of cabbage is round, weighing up to 1.8 kg, excellent storage.
• Nurima F1 is an early variety (80 days), a head of cabbage of excellent taste, average weight 2.5 kg, not intended for long-term storage.
• Kalibos - a variety of medium ripening, cone-shaped heads of cabbage up to 2 kg, not whimsical to cultivation conditions.
• Stone Head is a late variety with a high yield, not susceptible to diseases.

How to grow red cabbage properly?

Depending on the variety, a head of red cabbage is formed in 105-200 days. It can be grown by seed and seedling method.

With the seed method of growing red cabbage, a large number of seeds are consumed, moreover, at the beginning of the growing season, the sprouts require careful care. Sowing with seeds in the southern regions is carried out in March-April, in the northern regions, the period is shifted to the period April-June.

How to properly grow by seed?

The calibrated seeds are pickled in a weak solution of potassium permanganate, or they are immersed in hot water (50 ° C) for 20 minutes, and then cooled. The prepared seeds are sown in fertile soil, sowing 4 seeds in each hole. Sprinkle them on top with soil or a mixture of peat and humus. The minimum distance between the holes is 60 cm, and cabbage seeds are planted to a depth of 4 cm.To protect future seedlings from cruciferous flea beetles, the soil is powdered ash.

When 2-3 true leaves are formed on the plants, thinning is carried out, leaving 2 copies in each hole, and after a while another one is removed in favor of the better developed one. Seedlings of red cabbage carefully removed from the hole can be transplanted. The plant remaining in the hole is spud.

Seedling method of growing

Seeds are prepared in the same way before sowing. You can germinate cabbage seedlings on windowsill in seedling boxes or pots, in greenhouses, unheated greenhouses or in open nurseries.

Prepared soil, consisting of equal parts of sod land and peat, is poured into the boxes. With this method of growing seedlings, it is important to monitor the temperature regime - the column should not fall below the 16-20 ° C mark before shoots appear. After that, the temperature is reduced for a week to 8 ° C, and after that the seedlings are grown at a temperature of 12-15 ° C.

Red cabbage seedlings are ready for transplanting by May, when 5-6 leaves have formed on the plant and it is well hardened.

Prepare the soil before transplanting in the same way as for white cabbage. Red cabbage grows best on fertile, loose and light soils with an acidity of 5.5-7.0 pH. On acidic soil, red cabbage does not grow at all.The best place for this culture would be the well-lit ridge on which last year they grew cucumbers, tomato, bow, legumes, beets or potatoes. So that the plants are not affected by the keel, the red cabbage is returned to the previous cultivation site after 4 years. The soil on the ridge is prepared since the fall, bringing organic... If there is none, use nitroammofosk as fertilizer.

Transplanting grown red cabbage seedlings is carried out according to the following technology: potash fertilizer or ammonium nitrate, mix the fertilizer with the soil, spill a little water, and plant the seedlings. The soil around is compacted, after which it is spilled with warm water.

Caring for red cabbage

Further measures for the cultivation of red cabbage are reduced to weeding, loosening the soil, hilling and timely watering.

Watering... Like any other type of cabbage, this crop is moisture-loving. The lack of moisture affects the yield and quality of heads of cabbage. It is useful from time to time to carry out abundant sprinkling of red cabbage plantings so that the drops drip from the leaves. Moisture for this type of cabbage is extremely necessary during the formation of rosettes of leaves, their growth until the moment they close in the aisles. Also, abundant watering should be carried out during the period of head formation. However, you should not flood the plantings, since red cabbage does not tolerate stagnant moisture and excessively moist soil.

Loosening and hilling... The first loosening of plantings is carried out a week after planting. Caring for red cabbage involves regular aeration of the soil for good root development of the plant. When the third loosening is carried out, the stalk of the cabbage is spud up to the level of the first leaves.

Top dressing... During the period of active growth of leaves, cabbage is fed nitrogen fertilizer, and when the head of cabbage begins to form, phosphorus and potassium should dominate in the feeding. If there is a lot of nitrogen, the plant will continue to grow leaves at the expense of head formation.

Diseases and pests... Cabbage is badly damaged by aphids, moths, thrips, cabbage and scoop, fleas, flies. But most often the cabbage dies from the keel. In damp and rainy weather, cabbage can be affected by vascular and mucous bacteriosis, fusarium.

Control methods for all types of cabbage are the same. Keel will be saved only by maintaining the correct crop rotation. For insects, insecticides or folk methods are used: dusting with tobacco dust and ash, spraying with infusions of garlic, onions or wormwood.

Red cabbage Garanci - video