Sowing

• Take a seedling tray with medium sized cells & drainage holes at the bottom.
• Fill the cells/cups with a good growing medium.
• When grown indoors, ideal growing medium for Cabbage is Coco peat.When grown outdoors, use fine sand.
• Sow 2-3 cabbage seeds per cell/cup. Cabbage seeds are very small. Avoid sowing them in too deep.
• Place your seeds on the surface of the medium and use the inside with the tip of a pencil and cover the surface with coco peat ensuring that the seeds are covered.
• Alternately, you can also make shallow depressions in the medium using the back of a pencil and put your seeds inside these depressions and cover them up with coco peat.
• Keep the seedling tray indoors till the seeds germinate.
• Provide 2 tablespoons of water every day to the seeds. Of you can also keep the seed tray in another tray full of water for half an hour so that the water will be absorbed by the seed cells from the bottom, via drainage holes.
• To encourage germination, place the seed tray in a box or cover it with paper for first 4-5 days.
• If seeds are planted outdoors on seed beds, protect them from heavy rainfall or direct sunlight.

Caring

• Cabbage seeds will germinate within 6 - 8 days and tiny sprouts will be visible at this stage.
• Second week onwards your seedlings will start growing into a plant. At this stage expose the seedling tray to more sunlight to encourage leaf growth.
• Keep one seedling per hole and cut off the smaller seedlings using a pair of scissors.
• 30 to 35 days after the seed sowing, your seedlings will be ready to transplant in container pots or raised beds.
• Choose a container with a minimum depth of 8 inches & bigger spread area Like crates or big trays based on your requirements and available space.
• Ideal planting mixture for Cabbage: 2 part garden soil & 1 part Organic Manure OR part garden soil, 1 part coco-peat & 1 part Vermicompost.
• Transplant the seedling along with root ball of a medium.
• Before transplanting the seedlings, use a good quality organic manure in the soil with 2:1 ratio. Organic fertilizer can be well rotten cow dung manure, farmyard manure, compost or vermicompost.
• Cabbage plants needs full sunlight in winters. Place your containers in an ideal spot accordingly.
• Water your potted Cabbage plant every alternate day in winter.
• For an even shower use a Watering can to water your plants or use a drip irrigation system.
• After transplantation, apply balanced liquid fertiliser or handful of vermicompost to each plant, every 15 days.
• Look for early signs of fungal, insect or any other infections. Spray appropriate medicines to cure these symptoms.
• 55 to 60 days after transplantation ( which is 100-110 days from seed sowing the seeds) , your Cabbage heads will be ready for harvest.

Common Problems

Why are my Cabbage seeds not germinating?
Growing conditions like moisture, improper soil temperature, over watering or under watering can all be a reason why your seeds are not germinating.
What are yellowish or brownish spots on my cabbage leaves?
Downy Mildew caused by a fungus can cause formation or yellowish or brownish spots on your cabbage leaves. Use appropriate medicines to get rid of the fungus.
Why won’t my cabbage form a head?
A few reasons why your cabbage plant isn’t forming heads are overcrowding, excess nitrogen. or planting the seedlings in improper weather conditions. Sowing your seeds at the right time is very crucial for head formation.Cabbages grow the best when they are sown in winters.