Growing butter cabbage: sow until harvest

Especially the old, often forgotten vegetables are becoming popular again when growing in your own garden. The butter cabbage, similar to savoy cabbage, is also a suitable vegetable for home-growing.

Appearance, growth & origin

Our grandparents had the butter cabbage (Brassica oleracea spp. capitata convar. costata), which belongs to the cruciferous family (Brassicaceae), a popular variety of cabbage grown in many gardens:

• Very similar in taste to savoy cabbage
• Combination of savoy cabbage and white cabbage
• Cabbage loose and not completely closed
• yellow-green leaves
• frizzy with slight bubbles
• similar protruding leaf veins like savoy cabbage

sowing

Sowing directly in the bed is usually not recommended, because then no more frosty nights should be expected. This is only possible after the ice saints in mid-May. Therefore, it makes more sense to prefer the cabbage.

Prefer butter cabbage

• February to May on the windowsill
• not directly via heating
• Glasshouse is optimal
• use shallow boxes or bowls
• Use potting soil
• Sow seeds thinly
• Keep the soil slightly moist
• Germination at 2 ° Celsius
• choose a bright location
• Temperature here between 15 ° and 18 ° Celsius

Tip: Some varieties can be brought forward as early as January. When buying the seeds, you should keep an eye on the information on when to sow.

Sow directly into the garden bed

If the seeds are to be sown directly in the garden bed, then there are a few other things to consider when growing the butter cabbage without pre-breeding:

• Do not fertilize the soil before sowing
• Place seeds on the ground every 40 x 40 centimeters
• press in slightly
• Sowing time April to May
• water lightly
• Cover the bed with plant fleece
• If the first seedlings appear, remove the fleece during the day
• Continue to cover at night if ground frost is expected
• Mulch soil around small plants
• fertilize with organic fertilizer now

As soon as the night frosts after the ice saints in May are over, there is no longer any need to protect the plants with fleece. But it makes sense to stretch a net over the young plants from now on.

tip: If the seeds are sown directly in the garden bed at a sufficient distance, pricking out is no longer necessary here either.

Soil condition and location

A sunny to partially shaded garden bed should be selected for the butter cabbage. When choosing a bed, it is also important that it should only be used for the cultivation of butter cabbage every three years. It is ideal if the soil is prepared in autumn of the previous year, but no later than one month before planting:

• soil rich in nutrients and humus
• good water storage is an advantage
• Fold in compost as preparation
• add clay to sandy soil
• grow other vegetables in the bed next year
• pay attention to crop rotation
• do not plant any other cruciferous vegetables
• suitable are lettuce, peas, celery, Beetroot, Spinach

Note: The crop rotations mentioned are also well suited for a mixed culture with the tasty cabbage variety. But also flowers, like that Tagetes, keep pests away from the cabbage and can be grown side by side with the vegetables in the bed.

plants

The small butter cabbage plants are only grown in the prepared garden bed after the ice saints, when no more ground frost is to be expected. Because if there was a night frost, the delicate plants would freeze to death:

• prior pricking out not necessary
• Plant small plants directly in the garden bed
• Distance each 40 x 40 centimeters
• Loosen the soil well beforehand
• pour on
• water on dry days
• otherwise natural rain is enough

Note: If you place the butter cabbage plants in the garden bed as early as mid-April, you must ensure that there is adequate protection against frostbite. Mulch the soil all around and place plant fleece over the bed overnight.

care

If the garden bed and the soil have been appropriately prepared before the plants are grown, then there is not much to consider when caring for them:

• Water sufficiently during the growth phase
• especially important on very warm days
• Otherwise, cabbages will dry out very quickly
• Leaves lose their delicate substance
• when heads develop fertilize again
• use organic fertilizer for this
• with horsetail or Nettle manure strengthen
• alternatively use organic fertilizer from trade
• Regularly loosen the soil by hoeing

Tip: In order to store the moisture in the soil, a layer of mulch should be applied to the bed. This can consist of lawn clippings.

Pests and diseases

The butter cabbage is more resistant to diseases and pests than other types of cabbage. If the care is correct, the cabbage will usually grow without any problems. Nevertheless, there are various diseases and pests:

• Tip-over disease: a fungus that affects young plants
• Carboniferous hernia: slime mold on the roots
• Cabbage fly
• Earth fleas
• Cabbage white butterfly
• Cabbage moth

Tip: So that no fungal diseases occur, it is advisable to always take a break from growing cabbage on a bed of at least three years. If the bed is changed annually for the cultivation, there are usually no fungi.

Recovery and harvest

The butter cabbage is ready to harvest just eight weeks after planting. This means that if the small, preferred plants were cultivated in the garden bed in May after the ice saints, the cabbages are ready to be harvested in mid-July:

• harvest and utilize as a whole head
• for a cabbage dish (e.g. B. Cabbage rolls): harvest individual leaves from the outside in
• so the rest of the cabbage stays fresh longer
• Harvested cabbages can only be stored for a few days
• harvest before shooting

Note: When "shooting cabbage" is meant the flowering with subsequent seed formation. A shot of cabbage becomes inedible and bitter.

frequently asked Questions