How to grow great cabbage

The very slow, roundabout story of how to grow great cabbage.

Total time for project: approx. 15 years in 16 easy steps.

A row of lovely blush cross cabbage after frost.

Step 1: Decide that you like cooking and that growing herbs is cheaper than buying them. 

Time - Several trips to the grocery store

Step 2: Become suddenly and acutely obsessed with growing anything edible*. 

Time - 5 min.

Step 3: Scroll/flip through seed catalogues with an almost guilty relish, picking reliable staples like 

Red Rock Mammoth cabbage and interesting plants like San Michele blush savoy. 

Time - Endlessly blissful hours

Step 4: Have mixed success but vow that next year will be better.

 Time - However long is required to realize that gardening is easy and hard, simple and complicated, beautiful and defeating; That it is worth every minute.

It's bigger than her head! It's so big that it was blowing up!

Step 5: Finally crack this cabbage growing thing, at least most of the time.

Time: one wonderful season + many great meals

Step 6: Start hanging out with seed savers and amateur plant breeders. 

Time: Varies, may not happen. I recommend it though.

Step 7: Have a row of Red Rocks and one lonely San Michele overwinter. 

Time: Several snow blind months

Step 8: Remember hearing something about cabbages being outbreeders and mostly self infertile. Have a sudden idea. 

Time: A flash!

Red rock mammoth quartered.

Step 9: Almost lose precious San Michele pods because someone ripped off a seeding stem. For no Reason! Consider stationing guards around the remainder. Get seeds by careful winnowing and threshing. 

Time: One feverish summer of plant joy.

Step 10: Share seeds, grow out cabbage again and again. Get wonderful reviews because this is one excellent cabbage. 

Time: Several years.

Step 11: Attempt to overwinter f1s. Fail. 

Time: Several snow blind months + the mud season x 2

Step 12: Take cabbage cuttings and discover they root really easily. Overwinter inside. Be surprised when they flower without vernalization. Baby. Hand pollinate. Save seeds.**

Time: More than half a year plus many delicate minutes with anthers and stigmas.

This is kale, but I've had cabbage survive and resprout. Not only that but I've found that if I bring in the freshly dug roots of cabbage in the spring, they will sprout along the root rather like seakale thongs. 

Step 13: Grow the last of the RRMxSMf1s 

Time: Feb-April plant out

Step 14: Let the sun shine, the rain pour and the frost come. Harvest those that are starting to become slimy, split from the rain or just look a bit sad from the constant attack of earwigs, caterpillars, slugs, pill bugs and more. 

Time: May to Sept

Step 15: Eat 

Time: Whenever possible in a multitude of ways

Step 16: Stare at the little jar of f2s seeds with excitement. 

Time: Ongoing.

* I wasn't writing a garden blog back then. In fact, I only started writing a garden blog several years later after my husband (aka non-gardening partner) diplomatically suggested that perhaps I'd like to share my enthusiasm for growing things with OTHER PEOPLE (rather than with him). This post was from my original blog several years after the affliction became acute.

** I don't have a post on this because I abandoned this blog for my gardening friends on Facebook, started a new business, family and other excuses. I did share photos on some edible plant geek sites like Homegrown Goodness (an amazing resource) it seems. 

Experiments with hot and cold

I'm in the midst of two experiments dealing with two of my favourite vegetables that like different weather regimes.

Experiment I: Cool Cabbage


Flowerbuds on rooted cabbage cutting.

*If you have no idea what I just wrote below then go to the bottom*

The first is my San Michele x Red Rock Mammoth cross. If you haven't heard about me gone about it before, well then, welcome to an odyssey. I haven't managed to yet get f2s so I figured I'd try rooting cuttings and overwintering. All was going well but then I realized that I will have to vernalize in order to get flower. Generally I plant out cabbage early without inducing flowering and those heads that have overwintered, so far, have not produced seeds but more heads (part of why I don't have f2s, along with the bugs and freeze-thaw of spring). So I thought they would need a rather long exposure to cold. I started off with sitting them in my shoe room near a window. It gets cold in there but not horribly. They were there for a week. Then I put them in the garage window where I had planned on leaving them until the end of winter but only managed they were only there for a few days before it dipped into minus double digits so I moved them back inside planning on doing the shoe room treatment again. Mistake. They immediately started elongating and producing flower buds. Dang it!! Now, I have a few that are further behind and some that I did not attempt to vernalize so all hope is not lost. Not only that but in the spring, I will take cuttings from the plants emerging from the snow before they get all freeze-thaw-mushed on me. However, now the experiment has taken a turn. I plan on potting on again and hand pollinating with the hope of getting viable seed. Lesson learned I guess. Hold off on the vernalization until March.

I *could* potentially remove flower heads until spring. Maybe I'll do half and half.

Origins of this Cabbage

Experiment II: Hot (Sweet) Potato

 
These are freshly slipped sweet potato plantlets, doing some branching which I hope to cut off and root.

This is not a very serious experiment, I have to say. I am just starting my shoots really early so that I can cut them into sections producing more plants than usual for spring with fewer tubers. So far, roaring success. Sweets root easily from cuttings. Nothing further to report yet. The danger, I suppose would be if I get an indoor bug infestation. Not to fear, I have more roots that I can force later which is good as I am predicting a late spring (sorry folks). Don't cry though, I'm using my 'intuition' rather than probabilistic forecasting. That and the amount of accumulated snow and cold weather patterns.

 Extra Experiment: Craggy 2 year old, broken sweet potato tubers will sprout. Go figure.



*** For those that didn't know what the heck I was going on about because your plant obsession hasn't quite reached critical levels, here is a translation. P.S. There is plenty of room in the rabbit hole for you.

I let the bees frolic in the flowers of two types of cabbage. One was called San Michele. The other was named Red Rock Mammoth. They made seed babies. As this is the first generation of the cross, they were called f1s. I loved the variety and wanted to see if I could get it to be stable. This is because when I let these babies flower and set seeds, the characteristics will all jumble up again making for lots of variation. I would have to select plants that I liked and save seed for generations until the babies produced were more or less the type I wanted. But to start, I need the second generation or f2s. Cabbage usually flowers in the second year after winter. I have been trying to overwinter my first generation of the cross but had problems. These were 1) eaten by bugs, 2) turned to mush because of oscillating temperatures in spring and 3) didn't both to flower and made another cabbage head instead. Now, I plan on trying a frost blanket, also called a floating row cover this year, (duh) but foliage emerging from snow is very tender so I'm not convinced it will work. Cabbage heads always mush out for me in winter but I do get a lot of leaves growing out of the stems in spring and sometimes flowers which is why I was able to make the cross in the first place.

As an insurance policy, I decided to take advantage of a trick that many members of the cabbage family have which is that they can grow roots from sprouts off the stem. I plucked those and put them in moist soil. Some, I cut a bit of the stem off too with the sprout. They rooted and grew very well but they were inside not exposed to any cold. The aim was to get them to flower not make more cabbage heads. So I tried to give them some gentle cold in order to get them to spring where I could plant them out and they could flower for me. Fail. They flowered early.

This means that to rescue the experiment, I am going to have to move pollen from the male parts of the flowers to another plant's female flowers in hopes of getting some mature seed that will grow. Wish me luck!

Wormy apples are...

... delicious?


A slightly rain split head of San Michele X Red Rock Mammoth F1

At least they can be. Given the organic status of our acreage, all fruit are grown without any sprays. In the case of raspberries (and friends), currants, gooseberries, strawberries, haskaps, grapes, cherries (not that we've had too many yet) and blueberries this means simply harvesting them before something else does and for plums, harvesting slightly underripe to beat the brown rot, but when it comes to apples, creative measures are required.

This year and last, some trees (not the same ones) were ignored by the apple pests and could be stored whole in the cellar. Those that look especially wormy can also be harvested slightly underripe or at least processed right away. The value added activities of peeling, slicing and more are key to getting more apple goodness.

What to do with wormy* apples:

1. If crisp then invest in an apple peeler and corer - they are real time saver - then dehydrate.

Cut away the wormy bits. Some apples that have eaten cores will split in the peeler but for the most part, I find it works though I have less coddling moth here than I did at my last place and more apple maggot. You can see ours at the end of the table in the picture. We call her Suzy. I don't know why but because this implement is named, our kids have developed a real affection for it.

2. Peel (or not if you can get away with it) and cut up to make sauce.

I like to leave lots of red peels to make a lovely pink coloured sauce. After boiling with some sugar and cinnamon, I mash it through a sieve to remove the skins. You can also toss in other fruits. Dehydrating the sieved sauce makes great fruit leather or bake in pastry for tarts.

3. Make and freeze desserts like pie.

4. Make apple butter, chutney or other preserves.

5. or cider - going to get a press soon!

6. Grate with cabbage, add a touch of sugar, salt and mayonnaise to make a yummy coleslaw. Or otherwise use to make dinner

7. Feed to the deer (and then eat deer...)

Last night, we took the above and made number 6 with half the cabbage and a few tart apples - that's the San Michele x Red Rock Mammoth f1 cross heading for the second year in a row(!!)  - and used some other apples to make some turnovers for dessert.

Any other great ideas for apple preserving?

Here's a great link on preserving apples from local kitchen blog


*wormy: Obviously there are wormy apples and then there are wormy apples. Some are just too far gone. Destroy by crushing or some other mechanism wormy apples will lower populations of the pest. I get some apple maggot here or at least something that tunnels under the skin in multiple locations but less coddling moth which I used to get in the city. Maybe next year I'll try traps. Also I don't get scab but I do have some sort of core rot that is more of a problem with the pears (and the apples if I don't process fast). Obviously they might be too wormy to rescue which is why I recommend checking on them to find the right balance or ripeness and unworminess.

Cool things cabbages do and...

F1 San Michele X Red Rock Mammoth Cross. Plant reheading second year.

Where the heck have I been?

Well you see, first my camera broke and then there was this drought and that put a damper on my gardening glory then there was the fact that I am in my last weeks of pregnancy. Baby expected next week by the way so that's what's been keeping me from filling you in on the plant fun.

If you must know, the recent rains reinvigorated everything :D though the forest is still looking sad. Some bushes that I thought had bit the dust have resprouted leaves and I have some late fruit appearing on the weary pumpkins. If frost holds off until October, they'll be lots of pumpkin pie come winter. The weeds which couldn't germinate because of the lack of rain are taunting me now as I lug my large belly around the garden. You are not  supposed to do much digging in dirt if you are in the family way because of various pathogens.

But I suppose what you really want to know is about the cabbage. This is the F1 Red Rock Mammoth and San Michele cross. All its brothers and sisters from last year were either winter killed or demolished by a destructive plague of flea beetles followed by their earwig accomplices. One made it. Not enough to produce F2 seeds but I figured I'd spare it and see what it did.

And look what it did! That is a huge head on a second year cabbage that had already headed last year. I'm impressed. I am growing out some more F1s from this year which are also rehearing after being partly defoliated by aforementioned earwigs. They'll stay in the ground over winter hopefully producing the much wanted flower and seedpods next year.

P.S. Earwigs have been brought under control by a troop of guinea fowl, ducks and loose laying hens added to our acreage this year.

Easy Cabbage Breeding Harvest Monday*

The Offspring


Cross between Savoy San Michele and Red Rock Mammoth, F1 weighing in at a respectable 4 lbs.

I'm going to admit it right now. I'm pretty chuffed about my cabbage babies. Okay, so they aren't really my babies but the children of a couple randy Brassica oleracea var. capitata and I can't even claim any fancy scientific sounding techniques to produce the cross. Perhaps it is most accurate to say that I was the match maker. The bees were enablers. However as the cabbage and bees have little to say on the matter, I'm going claim ownership such as one can (I'll happily explain how you can make the same cross below).


Clockwise: San Michele, Red Rock Mammoth and their spawn, with the eloquent name RRMxSM F1 at the bottom.

I hadn't realized that I should be all atwitter about this cross as I hadn't harvested any until Saturday. In fact, until Saturday, I wasn't entirely sure if I had succeeded on creating a cross. Sure, they looked intermediary between the two parents - a hard headed, delicious, pest resistant heritage red called Red Rock Mammoth and a beautiful blush savoy called San Michele. From the onset, the babies had lovely violet/green leaves which got progressively brighter and more purple as cold weather set in. They did appear to be slightly more savoyed than the Red Rock but it wasn't until I sliced off the heads that I saw the remarkable difference in the texture and colour of the leaves.


RRMxSM F1: violet splashed leaves.

It looks more like a savoy in cross section to my eye but instead of merely having a slight pink/purple blush in the centre of the head like the San Michele, it is mottled right through with violet splashed leaves. Even the taste is right between the two parents being sweeter and nuttier than the savoy but still a bit more 'green' than the red.

The F1s (first generation of a cross between two varieties) seem quite uniform so far from the reports back I've heard from the seed I sent out. Assuming these babies survive the winter - I'm testing them for winter hardiness** with nothing but leaf mulch and snow - then I'll let the bees do their business and we'll if there is more variation in the F2s. I suspect so and hope for the opportunity to find out!


Overachieving cabbage with multiple, sizeable secondary heads below main head.

Most of my cabbage plenty is still in the garden waiting for a later, big harvest before the real cold and snow sets in. It leaves me with a question for a future post: How to preserve all that cabbage? Here are a few suggestions but I am open to more:

* Store in cold cellar with intact roots.
* Cut in wedges and freeze for cooked dishes.
* Freeze whole for use as a wrappers for cabbage rolls OR make cabbage rolls and freeze them.
* Freezer slaw
* Dry - interesting
* Saurekraut
* Kimchi - Extreme Gardener (link at end) has a lovely looking jar with apples
* Otherwise pickle


Rainbow cabbage in a pot.


Easy Cabbage Breeding

You may have noticed that I'm the kind of gardener that likes techniques that create maximum success for minimum effort. As a rule of thumb, this involves working with nature.


Baby cabbage cross in spring.

Case in point: last spring, a row of undersized Red Rock Mammoths and one beautiful San Michele cabbage breezed through the winter. As Brassica oleracea is an outbreeder and most varieties are reputed to be self incompatible - rejects its own pollen - I figured the pods on the single San Michele might well be crossed. At the end of the season and some close calls with people snapping off flowerheads... I got a small amount of cabbage seeds from the San Michele and a good amount of seed from the Red Rocks. I gave away a bunch of the seed around and started some myself.


The parents as plants: Greener one is San Michele, more purple is Red Rock Mammoth. If you are curious, those flowerheads draping over them are from a kind of chinese cabbage.

Turns out the bees and the cabbage cooperated. So if you have a hankering to try it yourself, you know the parents. I'd love to hear from someone who tries it!

***

* Yes, I wrote this Sunday night. Monday morning I'm going to the tree nursery day for fall sales!!
** A note on winter hardiness and cabbages. I find that heads of cabbages tend to turn to mush in the spring but often small heads, roots and stems make it through sprouting new leaves and flower heads. I've started to cut off big heads but leave the rest in the ground in hopes of getting seed. I might try to take some cuttings of the cross to overwinter in the cellar. Not sure yet because my interest really is in producing cabbages that you can save seed from in our northern location. For those of you that hadn't contemplated it before, cabbage is biennial so the easiest way to save seed would be to have plants that survive in the ground during the cold months. As an outbreeder, you should be saving seed from as large a population as is reasonable. Cabbage seed stores for a while so if you are restricted for space, then just save for one generation. The two cabbages mentioned in the post are both large needing at least 3 feet square but 4 feet would be better to form, in my experience, 2-4lb heads though much larger have been reported.

***

How do I grow Cabbage and other family members?

Saving Cabbage Family Seed


Extreme Gardener (excellent blog) also writes about this cross in Blushing Cabbages

Time to get seedy!!

A bunch of Brassica napa seeds.


I've up to my armpits in Brassicaceae seeds such as rattail and daikon radish, as well as Michihili Chinese Cabbage (or that's what my tattered memory tells me it is), Red Ursa kale and however much mustard seed I'd like to collect which is none unless I get a request. I'm letting this generation create a dense, edible dirt cover for early spring next year, and hopefully a semi-feral population after that.


I've made many a post on collecting seeds of this most delicious family so I won't repeat myself (this time) but here is a pictorial of how we threshed a large amount of Chinese Cabbage Michihili.

Possibly way more than you want to know about brassica seed saving



My eldest demonstrating with very serious face how she walks the chaff off the seed.


To date, I've collected:


Michihili (I think) Chinese Cabbage*
Daikon and Rattail radish (these might have crossed)*
Unnamed Ground Cherry*
Red Streaks Mustard*
Sunberry
Chickpeas, mixed
Beans, many kinds
Peas, many kinds
Buckwheat, scant



The beautiful but leathally spined Milk Thistle's seeds.


Coriander*
Some Dill
Milk Thistle*
Edible Chrysanthemum

Double somniferum poppy*
Asian Poppy
Flander's Poppy
Blanket Flower*


If they have a star, then they will be appearing on the trade list soon.

... TBC ... When I finish cooking a couple lasagnas and make a fesh salad for the visiting Fam.

While I'm away...

...have some broccoli


The variety is nutri-bud

My youngest couldn't wait.


There's nothing like homegrown brocco-buds

More on growing broccoli, cabbage, cauliflor and other favs

See you soon!

Harvest Monday - Kale, kale and some chard

Kale with red oak leaves: Red Ursa is a beautiful, dependable, tender and tasty kale, originally from Wild Garden Seeds. I also quite like Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch - a frilly green variety. I don't typically grow taller types like palm/lacinato (B. oleracea) as I imagine they'd be more prone to die back above the snowline though I have not tried them so this is only a guess.

The kale that grows itself in my garden is Red Ursa - Brassica napus. I started these some years back and the winter survivors became the seed parents to a plentiful crop ever after. As vegetables go, and brassicas in particular, it is a easy, versatile plant. Hardy, they provide a three season harvest, even four during the milder winter months. Besides their leaves, you can eat the flowerheads like broccolini, the immature seedpods like rattail radish and the seeds as mustard or sprouted as microgreens.

Like the rest of the vegetable brassica tribe, they are also darn good for you. Doesn't the word kale just reek of nutrition? Doesn't the five year old in year wish for cookies instead?

Actually, I ♥ kale.


Perennial kale variety Daubenton growing near its so-called biennial cousin. This is a huge plant taking up a 3x4x3 foot space approximately in its second year but really can you have too much kale? It's much more strongly flavoured than the other kales I grow in the garden.

Also, it is beautiful in the garden. In the spring, transplant or seed a purple or blue toned variety near your asters or chrysanthemums. When the temperatures dip, they will take on vibrant cool tones that act as a fabulous foil for late season flowers. Their coarse textured leaves contrast nicely with grasses too.

Whattabout the chard? Oh yes, also harvesting greens like docks, chard, onions & roots like Jeruselum Artichokes, crosnes and salsify & various herbs

***

Didn't get your fill of kale? Here's a good article: The Best Kales by Mother Earth News

Saving Cabbage Family Seed

Back by popular demand, a post on saving cabbage and other Brassica seed with pictures!


Eldest holding a freshly saved bag of Red Rock Mammoth cabbage seed.

Life Cycle

To save seeds from annual brassicas, like mustards or many broccolis, grow the plant as you normally would but don't yank it out of the garden when it starts to turn buttery yellow with blooms. You may be surprised to see a five foot stalk emerge from your three inch high mustard plant so be prepared with stakes or cages. Or if you are the sort of gardener that I am - lazy efficent - then plan to have the seed parents growing near taller plants for support.


Red Osaka mustard in flower

Biennials such as cabbage and kale will need to go through vernalization before they will go to seed. That's a fancy word meaning: experience a period of cold. You can trick a plant into thinking its gone through a two year cycle by starting it indoors and then putting it outside while the weather is still cool - a technique used to get globe artichokes to produce in one year. I've never bothered trying this with brassicas.

Some people will have no issues overwintering these plants in the ground so will simply be nodding their heads at this point. Others will be sighing about having to coddle them in cellar during the frigid months. Don't despair. If storing cabbages with their roots planted in moist sand for months sounds like too much work, there are alternatives. The easiest is the wait and see method. That which makes it through the winter is considered a winner! To give them more of a chance, especially if you live in an area that has limited, inconsistent snow cover and very low temperatures, provide some insulation yourself by mulching with loosely packed leaves, pine broughs, rose cones etc... after cold has set in and mice have found other living arrangements. Don't worry if the tender bits like heads rot off, the stem may still be alive sending out leaves and flowers. Some people experiment with overwintering cabbages at different stages of growth to see what survives the best.


Red Rock Mammoth Cabbage Flowers

Perennials will flower when they are ready. That might be the first year, that might be the second year or that might be hardly ever in the case of walking kale which is traditionally propogated by cuttings.


Population Size

Respect your genetic diversity. These plants are generally outbreeders and self incompatible. You will need more than one. Make sure that you save seed from as many of the best performing individuals as possible. Think at least 20 but twice as much (or more) would be better. If you don't have a lot of space, consider these cheats.

Plant closer together. If you read seed saving books, they will often tell you to replant your mother/father plants farther apart to allow for best growth and seed production. However, if you have to choose between more seeds from a few individuals or less seeds from many individuals, I'd choose the latter.

Grow your parent plants in the middle or back of your ornamental beds. The tall yellow flowering seed heads can be pretty as fillers. Allowing kale and mustards to self seed in drifts will allow you to have a self sustaining population of delicious greens, not take up as much room in your garden and give you the opportunity to collect seeds for trading and giving away to others.


Here you will see volunteer mustard and kale in the front and middle of the border. I will harvest the mustard in the front, replacing it with fall crop. The ones further back will be left as seed parents.

Mix varieties together. To avoid this, you will want to allow only one member of the same Genus species to flower at the same time. If, on the other hand, you want to increase the genetic diversity of your seed crop, consider doing a little backyard hybridization. Let a variety of broccolis flower together. For more on breeding your own veggies, see Carol Deppe's great book on the subject.

Chart of common Brassicas by species*:

Brassica oleracea: cabbage, cauliflower, kholrabi, broccoli, kailaan, brussel sprouts, and some kale
Brassica juncea: some mustards
Brassica rapa: turnip, chinese cabbage, some mustards, some rapini
Brassica napus: rutabaga, some kales

* Same Genus species can cross

Lastly, you can save from fewer individuals and get satsifactory results. Brassica seeds are produced in abundance and are long lived. My advice would be to do it only for one generation and let anyone who you are sharing seed with know that these babies come from a small gene pool.

Seed Collection

Ah the easiest bit. Once most of the seed pods on the stem turn dry and tannish - purple ones will appear rose beige, green ones just beige - snip it off into a large bag or bowl. You can let them dry further inside (in a bag or bowl!) but they will not continue to mature. Some plants are more prone to having shattering pods so you may have to snip them off in stages to prevent losing the seeds.


Stem full of pods. Note the rose tan colour.

For delicate pods: These are the easiest. My mustard pods can be easily stripped from the stem by hand. Then just grab handfuls and crush. The seed will pop from the pod. Most of the chaff will be on the surface as the heavier seed sinks so it can be lifted off the top. Any remaining can be winnowed using various methods such as slowly pouring the bowl into another on a breezy (not too blustery day) or even just by blowing.


Close up of the Red Rock Mammoth seed pod.

For sturdier pods: My cabbage pods are more hefty so I crush the stems with pods still on in my hands or use the fire starting method pictured below. Just be careful that the seeds are not flung every which way. Most of the chaff can then be lifted off the seeds that will be resting on the bottom of the bowl or bag.


Me, starting a brassica fire - rubbing the stem with pods together in my hands.

Place dry seeds in an air tight container like a jar or a plastic bag, well labelled! (I'm yelling at myself there not you. I have lots of seeds with names like carrot, orange or just __ I guess I expect myself to recognize the seeds...)


Chaff on top, seeds on bottom.

Previous post on Saving Small Bunches of Brassica Seeds

***

More winnowing techniques from Salt Spring Seeds
Brassica saving notes from Real Seeds
Brassica names
Scroll down for a post by Frank from Homegrown Goodness on saving brassicas

Bring on the broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower

Blush savoy - 4 out of 5 slugs agree that this is one tasty cabbage.

I was recently asked a question. Actually it was more of a comment: "Broccoli, bah, never get the darn things to grow."

I chose to hear, "Dear Ottawa Gardener, please impart on me what you have learned by trial and error about how to make both heading and flowering brassicas do their thing with style, at least most of the time."

I know most of us bloggers/blog readers are strapped for time, so I'll make this a choose your own adventure.

1. Tell me about heading brassicas please
2. Go to technique for spring planted broccoli and cabbage.
3. I would like to learn about fall brassicas or how to not fail.
4. I've given up, just give me some good alternatives.

***

Tell me about heading brassicas please!

Let's define this as members of the Genus Brassica whose main eaten part are a tight heart of leaves that surround a flower bud - cabbage, nappa cabbage, and brussel sprouts - or the flower bud itself - broccoli, cauliflower, and rapini. Within this group are mostly annuals and biennials.* The biennials require exposure to prolonged cold temperatures before they will flower. Cabbage and brussel sprouts are in this category** and if they succesfully overwinter, will send up a flower stalk in the spring. We don't want this to happen prematurely as it would arrest the development of the yummy part - the tight whorl of wrapper leaves.

Vernalization - for you latin geeks out there is when a plant will not intiate flowering until undergoing a period of cold. Vernus = spring.


Brussel sprouts, often seen in pictures dusted with snow to demonstrate their haridness, survive the Ottawa winter somewhat intact and begin to go fluffy, preparing for flowering.

The edible flowerbud types can either be annuals such as most broccolis and cauliflowers marketed to cold climes or biennial like some kinds of Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Purple Cape Cauliflower.


Just to be different, here is a savoy that has re-headed with several smaller heads after the main head has been cut.

For those of us with harsh winter climates, we have a hard time getting our brassicas to overwinter intact so the fact that there are Brassicas out there that will provide a nice early crop of purple florets may be filed under 'trivia.'

Psst: Hardy kale will produce edible flowerbuds in the spring too, even in Ottawa.


Techniques for spring planted broccoli and cabbage.

I discovered this by accident after starting a crop too early and then experiencing a delayed spring. While you are reading this, keep in mind that people don't normally grow broccoli and cabbage this way as it can potentially expose them to sufficient cold to make them button - or flower prematurely with teeny weeny heads. I have yet to experience this.

1. Start your cabbage and broccoli indoors at the same time you start your tomatoes which will be about 6-8 weeks before last frost. Get them growing strong and quickly.


Here they are stuffed in a small clementine crate filled with a plastic bag and some starter soil. They are in a sunny south facing window.

2. Harden them off by letting them spend some time outside during the day in a coldframe or other protected location. Plant outside when when they are approximately 4 weeks old, under some sort of cloche or row cover. These recycled pop bottles (what do my neighbours think of my scrounging around in their recycling?) work very well. I have also 'double' wrapped by putting them under a glass cold frame in their little pop bottle cloches. Don't forget to take them off or prop them open if the day is sunny / warm.


Notice the frost on the ground around this toasty little cloche?

3. You'll probably want to leave the cloche off entirely when nighttime temperatures are comfortably above freezing. This should give the cabbage and broccoli a good 6-8 weeks of cooler weather to develop into big plants.


This is the same broccoli pictured in the cloche above in early summer.

Despite the fact that my baby plants have been experienced both frost and snowfall, this technique has given me the biggest broccoli and cabbage heads. I have also transplanted indoor started plants after last frost, and have direct seeded with less stellar results. I am not sure why they don't 'button' but it may have something to do with not experiencing enough cold, being transplanted at a non vulnerable stage of development or the varieties choosen which are cold resistant. Whatever the reason, this has worked well for me. This early broccoli also experiences very little pest damage.


I would like to learn about fall brassicas or how not to fail.


A fall bounty of brussel sprouts, kale and chinese 'lettuce' cabbage.

I may be overselling it but if you live in an area that is highly seasonal with a short spring or hot summers then you may want to try planting tricky cole crops so that they mature in the cool temperatures of fall. Brussel sprouts, nappa and other oriental cabbages, and cauliflower are most succesful planted this way. This will mean planting mid-summer, somewhere between 12-8 weeks before first frost depending on the plant. You can direct seed but just make sure to keep the ground well watered. To avoid excessive slug attacks and cutworm cursing, you may want to start them indoors. When they are around 4 weeks old, transplant to their permanent location. If this is in a coldframe then you can often extend the growing season beyond first snowfall.


I've given up, just give me some good alternatives.

You're right if you think that these are amoung the prima donas of vegetables. The bugs think they are delicious, they are prone to a range of diseases and they tend to be heavy feeders. If after all your care, you boil up a bunch of broccoli only to find your pot filled with floating green catepillars (happened to a friend of mine), you may despair (or feed the whole mess to your chickens). Thankfully there are some easy going alternatives, namely the leaf crops.

Kale is extremely hardy and will overwinter in Ottawa. Not only does it provide lots of nutritious and tasty leaves that can be used in most of the ways that you would prepare cabbage, it is also highly ornamental. In the spring, the plant will produce broccolini buds then spicy flowers followed by crunchy, young seepods and seeds that can be sprouted or saved.



Red Ursa kale demonstrating four edible elements: flowers, seedpods, leaves and flowerbuds.

If you want to expand your brassica leaf horizons, try leaf broccoli, collards or couve tronchuda - the bok choy of B. oleracea, I have heard it called. I plan on trying that last one next year.



Collards - notice the variation in leaf colour and shape even though these came from the same packet.

Another tip: Brassicas generally prefer to grow in nuetral soil and may benefit from a bit of extra calcium which is why some people start them in eggshells though I find this impractical and a bit cramping for their root systems. They are said to grow best in mild climates with consistent water and fertility. I've noticed that the ones on the downslope of my raised bed get bigger.

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* This 'footnote' has a picture


Nine star broccoli flowers in the second year to produce numerous white florets. As most of my gardening friends say, really it's more like cauliflower. It is considered a perennial in that if the plant is kept from going to seed, it will live for several years but it is more accurate to call it monocarpic meaning it will die after it has set seed.

Related post: Thoughts on overwintering brassicas

** Biennial brassics, especially those undergoing stress, can bolt to seed in the first year. I have had so called biennials live three or more years.

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Did you notice that I somehow managed to not include a single red leafed Brassica in the whole post? You'll be reassured to know that almost all the above comes in fetching shades of maroon as well as green and silvery blue.

Putting kale through its paces

Picture taken today. Temps are around 0 degrees celcius and somewhat to my surprise, the leaves of this plant perked up. You can see some frost scorch on them nonetheless.

"If you thought that weeks of weather with lows in the minus double digits and wind chills causing a vertigo inducing dip below that, ice storms that coated me in several inches of ice, and weeks with no sun could kill me, then you were WRONG!"

-- says 'Red Cavalier' kale

This is one of a gang of possibly 'perennial' or long lived brassicas that are undergoing winter - Ottawa style - to see who emerges on the other side of the spring melt alive. Of course, just because a plant survives one winter (or half way through one winter) doesn't mean that it is hardy around here. It may mean that we had lots of coozy snow to protect its root system or that we had particularly mild temperatures. A killing year is one with less than average snow fall and lots of cold snaps. So far, I would say that this winter has been average.

Some oldsters who have survived several years are:

Very hard kales like Red Ursa and Dwarf Scotch Curled


This one is 'Red Ursa' kale, a nice cross between Red Russian and White Ursa if memory serves correctly.

Seakale


This is the species, I think. I also have the cultivar 'Lily White.'

Horseradish: I love the vegetable which is good because it's here to stay.


Got the first root from the grocery store, but if you don't feel like spending the couple bucks, contact me in the spring. I have roots for you (as do I supsect anyone else who has grown it before does.)

Upland Cress (Barbarea vulgaris): No picture sorry. I want to try variegated winter cress but it is not supposed to be hardy here. The regular all green variety, on the other hand, is hardier. It may also self sow.

Some others undergoing the 'test'

Walking kale / Chou Daubenton


The one not beheaded by the rabbit. I have a couple others undercover.

9 star broccoli (cauliflower): I don't expect this one to make it.


I've heard not to expect too much from this sprouting 'cauliflower' - seen here as the wavy grey/green leaves next to my youngest. Next year, I am growing it in a polytunnel as well.

Thoughts on brassica suvival:


Chinese heading cabbage resprouting from the crown. This died shortly afterwards I believe.

Large leaves and heads tend to die back, especially if they are above the snow line. I have had some cabbage heads, particularly 'Red Rock Mammoth', overwinter but most of the wrapper leaves were dead. The stem with cabbage and brassica sometimes manages to resprout a head and some leaves and then go on to flower. Plants that resprout from the roots also do better like Seakale. Short open leafed kales can also make it. Of course annuals that reseed such as mustards have carpetted my gardens with babies in the spring.

In warmer climes, many brassicas such as purple sprouting broccoli and overwintering cauliflower all sail through winter to produce crops in the spring. Sources say that they have seen kale that is tree like in proportions in some very mild areas.

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More on perennial or long lived edible Brassicas

Chou Daubenton on the Perennial Platter

Perennial Cabbages on Homegrown Goodness

Watercress

Big on Fall Leaves

The Urban Forest

When I think autumn, I think leaves. Crunching along beside curbs cluttered with the bounty of fall litter. These gold, orange, brown and red riches fall in the urban forest just like they do in the wild but instead of enriching the soil, they are carefully removed, bagged and placed at the curb for pick up.


Leaves litter a suburban street.

Now don't get me wrong, I love bagged leaves. When I get a chance, I haul them back to my property where they are transformed into leaf mulch for perennial beds, path material, compost browns, insulation for tender crops and leaf mould. However, I feel a bit guilty taking from others who have not learned to appreciate this harvest time bounty. Not only are they missing out on a great soil conditioner, but it is easier on the back too since as an adult, fall memories contain a fair amount of raking.

My leaves are left if they flitter to a mulched path, perennial bed or beneath the hedge where they act as weed surpressers. Since my veggie patch is made of raised beds, leaves naturally settle on the pathes, locking teeth and becoming an effective mulch. Those that litter the lawn are mulched by our lawn mower and either left there or collected in the lawn mower bag. This rich mixture of grass clippings and leaves is then spread on the perennial beds. What remains to rake is only our patio stones and the rock path. Any extra leaves are left in a pile by the composter to add as part of my 'brown' layer, or to decay into leaf mould, a wonderful topdressing for the garden. Of course, if I'm making a new garden bed, the leaves are part of the organic layer I place on top of the sod.

Big Brash Brassica



But this is not the end to my leaf harvest. Brassicas make up a big portion of my fall garden as they are cold tolerant and tend to grow better in the cool, fall weather. Here my eldest daughter (her hand for scale at the top right) shows you some supersized greens: leaf broccoli, kale, chinese cabbage and a baby mustard leaf. They were whizzed up and added to a pancake recipe to make a savory base for curry. The kids loved these pancakes which did not taste that green (a plus for them).

As December begins, leaf harvest is almost at an end. The trees stand naked and the brassicas are braving the bracing wind. All is waiting for snow.

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Also...

Seeds, glorious seeds. I'm pleased to say that I have had lots of requests for seeds (see side bar for seed list) and another batch of mailings will be going out this week. They may take a bit longer in this Xmas rush but hopefully they'll be there shortly.

Wondering where part three of the Soil Scars and Dressing your Dirt went too? I felt like a leafy interlude but Part III on specific veggies will be here next week, promise.

Flowering Food: Kale

Not only is kale good for you, and by that I mean tasty, but it also works to give long season interest in the garden, still sitting pretty in the snow. Its thick leaves range from silvery green to purple, from softly waved to crinkled or puckered, and contrast well with finer foliage. Tall specimens like Dinosaur kale give an almost tropical look with large frond like leaves. The dwarf kinds like Blue Curled Scotch act as neat border plants the first year and in the second year, send up stalks of yellow flowers early in the season. You can choose to eat these flower heads before they open, much like broccolini but please let a handful flower*. Not only will you be rewarded by this floral delight, but all going well, you'll have a carpet of little kales waiting to take their biennial parent's place.


Red Ursa kale in flower.

* For genetic vigour, plant a variety of kale and let at least 10 go to seed. (I'm just bluffing on the number but it's more than 5 and less than 50. 10 is the number I try to have to go to seed but on bad years, it can be fewer. A fellow blogger saves cabbage seed from as few as three surviving heads so fear not! You can always add to your genetic stock by planting new varieties and letting them cross with your old ones).

How to grow kale

Why not trying winter sowing it? Some time in the depths of winter, take a break from browsing those garden mags, and throw some seeds in a mini greenhouse made of a recycled container (huh? Go to the site, you won't regret it) then let nature do the work. By mid-spring, you should have a kale plugs all ready for planting out.

Alternatively, you can start them around the same time that you start tomatoes, only put them outside when the weather is still cool even if mild frosts can be expected. Around here, I start mine around mid-March to early April and plant out sometime at the end of April to early May. If I plant out when snow still threatens, I use the tops of pop bottles as mini-cloches to create an enhanced growing environment.

You can also direct seed your kale mid-summer for a fall, even winter, harvest. They make good coldframe crops.

When the seedlings have a couple true leaves, you can carefully transplant them into their final spots. The rules of rotation recommends that you don't plant them in the same ground as another member of the brassica family more than every 3 or 4 years. Though less fussy than cabbage, cauliflower or other brassica aristocrats, they do appreciate a side dressing of compost or manure along with a steady water supply. They will also tolerate part shade.

With any luck, they will overwinter giving you broccolini, flowers and baby kale.


Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch kale hanging out with brassica buddies brussel sprouts and chinese cabbage.