Not every gardener manages to grow a good harvest of cabbage. It has many diseases, pests, and is capricious about fertilizing.
Missed it once - a year without cabbage.
There are many reasons why cabbage does not set well: weather, humidity, mistakes made during cultivation.
To ensure that cabbage sets well, you need to follow several basic rules.
Rule 1. Poor quality seed material
Buy seeds from trusted producers. They should be adapted to your climate conditions.
Rule 2. Incorrectly chosen plot for growing cabbage
Cabbage should be planted in a well-lit area and away from tall crops.
Rule 3. Too acidic soil
Neutral soils are best for cabbage. Before sowing, deoxidize the soil. To do this, add wood ash or dolomite flour when digging.
Rule 4. Bad Predecessors
Good predecessors are onions, various legumes, tomatoes and other nightshades. Bad predecessors are cruciferous crops and pumpkins. Cabbage can be planted in the same place no sooner than 3 years later.
Rule 5. Mistakes made in growing
Early varieties of cabbage should be planted in the garden in April-May, mid-season varieties in May towards the end, and late varieties in May-early June.
Follow the planting pattern: early bushes are planted at a distance of 50 cm from each other, middle and late ones at 70 cm.
Rule 6. Maintaining the temperature regime
The comfortable temperature for cabbage growth is 17-20 °C. Heat does not allow heads of cabbage to form. But very low temperatures also do not allow cabbage to bear fruit. You can protect cabbage by bending the lower leaves up over the head of cabbage and tying it tightly.
Rule 7. Not enough fertilizer applied
Cabbage constantly requires many useful elements, especially during the formation of heads. In the middle of summer, you need to feed the cabbage with azophoska, dissolve 1 matchbox of this fertilizer in 10 liters of water. You need to add 1 liter of solution under the root of the plant. Or superphosphate, 20 grams per 10 liters of water.
Rule 8. Poor plant care
Water.
Cabbage leaves evaporate a lot of moisture throughout the day. Therefore, it needs to be watered all the time, the soil should be soaked when watering to a depth of 30-40 cm. Before harvesting, watering should be reduced.
Loosen.
After each watering, you need to loosen the soil so that a dense earth crust does not form, which prevents the plant from breathing and growing.
Mulch.
To prevent the soil from overheating and losing moisture, it needs to be mulched.
You can help cabbage form heads by feeding it with folk remedies.
With the help of baker's yeast
Dissolve 100 grams of yeast and 500 grams of any jam in 10 liters of water and leave to ferment in a warm place.
Water the area with cabbage thoroughly with clean water, add a glass of yeast solution to 10 liters of water and water the cabbage with this solution. The consumption rate is 1 liter of solution under the root. You can water the cabbage with this solution once every 3 weeks.
With manure and wood ash
As soon as the cabbage has 9 leaves, feed it with this solution. Pour 10 liters of water into a container, add 40 grams of wood ash and 500 g of fresh manure. Leave it to infuse and ferment for several days. Water the bed generously with water, and then water the plants with a liter of infusion under each bush. Repeat this procedure at the end of June.
Boric acid
Apply foliar feeding of cabbage with boric acid, which helps to form large heads of cabbage. Dissolve 2 grams of boric acid in a liter of hot water, then add another 9 liters of water and treat the cabbage. After a week, spray with the preparation "Ovary", according to the instructions.
If you follow all the above recommendations, the cabbage will reward you with a good and rich harvest.
