How to plant Chinese cabbage and care for it
Miscellaneous / / June 24, 2022
We tell you how to harvest two crops per season.
When to plant Chinese cabbage
The temperature of the soil and air should not fall below 13 degrees. Cabbage develops well at +20, and already at +25 it cannot form a full-fledged head of cabbage. In addition, this culture loves a short daylight hours - no more than 12 hours - and with greater exposure to the sun, it spends its energy on flowering, and not on tying heads.
In most regions, this vegetable is planted in open ground twice a season - from late April to mid-May and from late July to mid-August. At this time, there are optimal conditions for the development Chinese cabbage.
How to plant Beijing cabbage for seedlings
The seeds of this vegetable do not require pre-soaking, so you can immediately start sowing.
Prepare containers
Cabbage does not tolerate a pick, so you should not sow it in a common box. Take individual 100-200 ml cups or special seedling cassettes that are sold at garden centers.
Fill the containers with soil, leaving 3 cm free from the edge. You can take ready-made universal soil for seedlings of vegetables and flowers.
plant cabbage
Put one seed in the center of each pot and pour a 2 cm layer of soil on top. Lightly dampen the surface with water from a spray bottle so as not to wash the soil.
Cover the containers with cling film and place them in a dark place. The optimum temperature for seed germination is 20-22 degrees.
Wait for shoots
Cabbage seeds can hatch in 4-7 days. As soon as you see sprouts, remove the film and place the pots on the lightest window sill.
Water the seedlings
Do not allow the soil in the pots to dry out, its surface should always be slightly damp. Water the cabbage with water from a spray bottle so as not to break the tender sprouts with a jet of water. Do this early in the morning or in the evening after dark to avoid sunburning the leaves.
How to plant seedlings of Beijing cabbage in open ground
About a month after germination, the plants have 4-5 true leaves. At this stage, they are ready to "move" to a permanent place.
Prepare the garden
Find a bright spot in the area where there can be light shade during the day. Apply 10 liters of rotted manure or compost and 1 tablespoon of azofoska to each square meter of the bed. Dig up the soil with a garden fork, and then level the surface of the soil with a rake.
Make holes
Their sizes should be slightly larger than seedling cups. Holes should be dug at a distance of 40-50 cm from each other.
transplant cabbage
Pour the wells with water and wait until it is absorbed. Carefully remove the plants from the cups, being careful not to damage the roots, and lower them into the holes together with the earthen clod. Fill the voids around the seedlings with soil, compacting it slightly. Moisten the bed with water from a watering can with a diffuser nozzle.
How to care for Chinese cabbage
This culture quickly accumulates nitrates, so feed its not worth it.
Water the cabbage
Moisten the crops once a week, and in the heat, perhaps more often. Make sure the surface of the soil does not dry out. You need to water the cabbage under the root so that water does not fall on the leaves of the plant. It is better to do it early in the morning or in the evening at sunset.
Loosen and weed the beds
Beijing cabbage has a shallow root system, and regular loosening of the soil around the plants provides it with oxygen. Do this after each watering with a fine-toothed hoe, being careful not to damage the roots. Also remove weeds regularly so that they do not interfere with the normal development of cabbage and do not take nutrients from the soil.
How and when to harvest Chinese cabbage
Depending on the variety, this vegetable ripens in 45–60 days from the moment of germination. It is better to start cleaning in dry weather. As soon as the head of cabbage becomes large and dense, cut it off at the very base with a sharp knife, capturing 0.5–1 cm of the stalk. The remaining rhizomes can be pulled out of the garden and thrown into the compost pit.
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