Weak sprouts that stretch upwards, fall and do not want to get stronger... This picture is familiar to many novice gardeners who grow cabbage seedlings.
This often happens because summer residents do not take into account all the nuances and features of the growing process. To avoid such problems, the expert of the online publication "BelNovosti", scientist-agronomist, landscape designer Anastasia Kovrizhnykh suggests figuring out what cabbage seedlings like and what they don't.
Cabbage does not like to sit on the windowsill for long, so you should not plant it too early - overgrown seedlings do not take root well.
Therefore, the first piece of advice is that when planting seedlings, take into account the ripening period, which can be early, mid-season or late, as well as the region in which you live.
Approximate planting dates for cabbage seedlings in the middle zone are as follows: from March 5 to 20 – early varieties, from March 20 to April 25 – mid-season varieties, from April 5 to 25 – late varieties.
When choosing seeds, you should be careful and not experiment with expired or suspicious specimens - and this is our second recommendation.
It is quite easy to identify good seeds: you need to put them in a salt solution for a few minutes. Those that float are not suitable for sowing.
Here's another tip: to speed up the germination process, you can place the seeds on a warm radiator for a few hours or soak them in warm water for an hour.
Finally, we recommend that you use loose soil to grow cabbage seedlings. Here are two soil mixtures that will work.
- Humus, turf soil and coarse sand in a ratio of 3:1:1.
- Compost, peat, coarse sand and turf soil in a ratio of 2:1:1:1.
Earlier we talked about how to feed seedlings so that they have strong roots.
Expert: Anastasia Kovrizhnykh
