Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

"If you are growing cabbage that 60# will last you for 12 CROPS of cabbage, since you only feed a maximum of 5 times for cabbage (JK)."

Sorry for the obtuse - just majorly missing something here.
A crop is a year? Why only 5 times for cabbage?
David

David & Group:

First to answer "Why only 5 times . . ". If you plant seeds in cold ground in the early spring you may end up feeding more than 5 times. And you'll be wasting some fertilizer in the process. This is because plants grow very slowly in temperatures below 70 degrees F, and they can't utilize the fertilizers well in cool temps.

But even with planted seeds you would normally begin feeding after seedlings emerge (probably 2 weeks after planting in cold weather), and stop 3 weeks before maturity. If you have a 60-day cabbage you begin feeding around day 14 and stop at day 45, which gives probably 6 feedings. And if you start with healthy seedlings you eliminate 2 feedings in the garden.

Depending on three factors, 1) the variety of cabbage grown, 2) whether or not you plant seeds or seedlings in the garden, and 3) the growing season where you live, you could grow as few as one or as many as 6 or 7 crops of cabbage in the same spot in one year. how? It's not that hard!

Cabbage typically requires 60-75 days from seed to harvest. If the first 4 weeks growth can happen before planting in the garden is possible because of frost, and if subsequent crops can also be overlapped by having seedlings produced in a greenhouse or cold-frame, then feeding for that 4 weeks per crop can be eliminated, and the 60-75 days becomes 30-45 days. Even with only a 100 day growing season you could manage 3 crops of the smaller varieties of cabbage.

Of course there is feeding of seedlings in the greenhouse, but the amount of fertilizer required is MUCH smaller than when they are in the garden. Sixty four plants in a single 18" X 18" flat would require about 1 OUNCE of fertilizer per week, rather than 16 ounces required to feed those same plants in a 30'-long soil-bed in the garden.

I will post a separate message discussing the great value to be had from a schedule James Gledhill prepared (with input from me) last year.

Jim Kennard

• New Members 21