Historical accounts of red cabbage, sometimes known as purple cabbage, date back to the 12th century. In addition to being a delicious winter crop, red cabbage is a bioindicator because its colour changes according to the pH of the soil. This feature is intriguing as it provides a clue about the pH level of your garden soil. It is red when grown in acidic soils and blue when grown in alkaline soils.
People have grown it as a popular winter crop due to its ease of cultivation and good storage. Its texture is extremely similar to white cabbage, but its leaves are primarily bluish-purple in hue. This is because it contains secondary plant compounds called anthocyanins. For humans, anthocyanins serve as antioxidants. It also contains vital minerals, including potassium, calcium, and chloride, and is high in vitamins B and C.
Read on how to plant and grow red cabbage in your garden.
How To Grow Red Cabbages?
Planting Red Cabbages
Pick a planting location that receives six to eight hours of direct sunlight daily for optimal results.
As a heavy feeder, cabbage rapidly exhausts the nutrients in the soil and requires a constant flow of water and fertilisers to thrive. Add compost or aged manure to the soil to prepare it beforehand. Additionally, the soil should drain well since standing water causes the heads of roots to split or decay.
Step-By-Step Guide
- Start seeds for a summer crop in six to eight weeks before the last spring frost. For suggested dates, see our planting calendar.
- Directly sow seeds (or plant transplants) outside for a fall crop in mid to late summer. Wait till late summer to plant if your region is scorching and dry. Do not let the summer sun dry out young plants!
- Plant the cabbage seeds about ¼ inch deep.
- Give the plants a week to harden off before putting the seedlings outside.
- Move seedlings outside on a cloudy afternoon two to three weeks before the last date of spring frost.
- Plant seedlings in rows 12 to 24 inches apart, depending on the desired head size. Closer spacing produces smaller heads.
- To create the necessary distance between seedlings, thin them when they are around 5 inches tall. You can move the trimmed seedlings to another location if desired.
- Cover the area with a thick layer of mulch to control soil temperature and preserve moisture.
- Every week, apply two inches of water per square foot.
- 20-22°C is the ideal soil temperature for growth. Exposing young plants to temperatures below 22°F for an extended period can cause them to bolt or develop loose heads. Cover your plants if you anticipate cold weather.
- Two weeks following transplantation, fertilise using a balanced fertiliser (10-10-10).
- Add a fertiliser high in nitrogen three weeks later; cabbage needs nitrogen throughout its early stages.
- When growing cabbages, rotate your crops to prevent the accumulation of soil-borne illnesses.
Care Guide For Red Cabbages
Use wire mesh to shield seedlings from pigeons and netting to prevent butterflies from depositing their eggs on the leaves in the summer. As a sacrificial crop for cabbage worms, which are more likely to consume nasturtiums than your cabbages, it's also worthwhile to cultivate them close by. Mint can repel flea beetles.
Water your cabbages and pull weeds by hand or with a hose between plants. During extremely cold weather, you may need to cover winter cabbages with cloches or row covers. Using a cold frame or greenhouse, you can safely grow cabbage in extremely cold climates.
Cabbage leaves can be light green, dark green, red, or purple, and the heads, also called hearts, can be spherical or conical. People often pickle or braise red cabbages.
While certain varieties, like the Savoy cabbage, generate deeply crinkled leaves ideal for soaking up gravy or sauces, others have a smooth, almost shiny appearance.
Spring cabbages are ready in the middle to late spring, and you can also harvest them young as "spring greens." You can grow fall and winter cabbages throughout the rest of the year, but it is advised to grow summer cabbages from summer into early October.
The harvest season for Savoy cabbages is extensive, spanning from October through winter and early spring.
Harvesting Red Cabbages
Harvest when the heads are firm and the appropriate size. If you leave mature heads on the stem, they may break. Most green cabbage cultivars take about 70 days to reach maturity, and the majority yield 1 to 3 kg heads.
Use a sharp knife to cut each cabbage head at the base before harvesting. After removing any yellow leaves, immediately bring the head inside or place it in the shade, making sure to save any loose green leaves for protection during storage. As an alternative, remove the entire plant, including the roots, and hang it in a damp cellar that gets close to freezing.
A small frost makes winter cabbages sweeter. You can either pick young spring cabbages loose and use them as spring greens or allow them to mature into a tightly packed head of leaves.
Cut off the head of the cabbage plant, leaving the roots and outer leaves in the garden so that you get two crops. Pinch off the plant's new heads until just four smaller heads are left. Harvest when it's the size of a tennis ball, which is ideal for salads.
Remove the whole stem and root system from the soil after harvesting to avoid disease. Only healthy compost plants; eliminate any that have maggot infestations.
You can use red cabbage, a common winter vegetable, raw or cooked in various recipes. Cooking red cabbage with vinegar or another acidic substance will turn it into an unsightly blue-grey colour. Always use stainless steel equipment and utensils to avoid colour changes when preparing red cabbage.