3 Reasons to Grow Your Own Cabbage

I fell in love with cabbage, particularly Napa cabbage (also known as Peking cabbage or Chinese cabbage), when I lived in China for two years after college; the oblong heads of Napa cabbage are still my favorite cabbage type to grow.

Here are three reasons I love growing cabbage:

#1: Cabbage is beautiful

With delicate ribs and large, showy leaves ranging from pale green to blue-green, red to purple, I think cabbage can hold up next to plants better known for their beauty like Swiss chard or chives in blossom. There's something simple yet so elegant about a row or two of cabbage down the middle of a raised bed, especially when the heads open to reveal layers of crinkly leaves.

#2: Cabbage is delicious and versatile in the kitchen

Most cabbage varieties have a mild and sweet flavor, especially after cooking. I also love the crisp texture, which comes from cabbage developing thick leaves that retain water and allow it to grow in colder places.

When you cut into a fresh cabbage, you should be able to hear a satisfying crunch from the water-filled leaves. I love mixing this crispness with other homegrown leaves in my salad bowl, and I often find I don't need much dressing thanks to the sweetness of cabbage. In addition to eating the leaves raw, you have many other options for enjoying your cabbage leaves.

#3: There are so many more varieties than the grocery store would have you believe

You probably only have four cabbage options in your local grocery store's produce aisle: green cabbage, red or purple cabbage, savoy cabbage (the type with crinkly leaves), and Napa cabbage. In actuality, there are over 400 different varieties of cabbage, and the only way you'll get to taste many of these is by growing your own.

There is one negative to growing cabbage though....

Cabbage Takes a Long Time to Grow

I often steer brand new gardeners away from plants like cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower because of their long time to maturity. Some cabbage types (particularly red or purple cabbage) require as long as 180 days to form a full head—that's half a year for one plant!

I recommend starting with Napa cabbage, which grows relatively quickly, by cabbage standards, in just 60 to 80 days. The reason is Napa cabbage doesn't need to form a tight head the same way a variety like Danish Ballhead cabbage does. Once you've mastered Napa cabbage, then you can explore different varieties and see what does well in your climate.

Whether you find that you prefer flatter or curlier leaves, green or red, smooth or savoy, I guarantee you that you'll ultimately agree that homegrown just tastes so much better than the lifeless store-bought varieties. Nothing beats garden-grown produce in any vegetable realm, but growing your own cabbage in particular really makes all the difference.

Let's look at how to grow and care for your own cabbage plants.

How to Grow Cabbage

Growing cabbage under its ideal conditions will help ensure you get nice, crisp leaves and, eventually, a full head, if that's what you're after.

A friendly word of grower beware: cabbages are what I call large and long plants, meaning they'll take up a lot of space in your garden and grow for quite a while before they're mature. This is especially important to note if you're growing in a limited space. Typically, the longer a plant takes to grow in your garden, the more opportunities you have for something to go wrong. There are plenty of fast-growing leafy green options that don't need an entire square foot of garden space if you're not quite ready to grow cabbage this year!

Sun

Plant your cabbage in an area that receives full to partial sun. Your cabbage will need at least four to five hours of direct sunlight each day to form those nice, big leaves.

Soil

Cabbage grows best in a loamy, sandy soil that drains well and is rich in organic matter—just like so many other veggies. My cabbage thrives in my raised beds with a layer of fresh compost on the surface before planting.

Season

The thick leaves of cabbage plants originally allowed them to grow in colder places that received less rainfall, and they still prefer to be grown in cooler weather, much like their fellow members of the brassica family. Unlike some of their cousins, however, particular cabbage varieties like Napa cabbage do not handle frost very well. Most seed packets will say this plant is only frost tolerant to about 26º F.

When the weather warms (think temperatures over 80º F consistently), mature cabbage plants will bolt, or produce flowers and then go to seed. Bolting is not ideal if your intentions are to eat the plant because the leaves will become bitter and the texture tough.

For most of you, that means you'll grow cabbage during your spring for a final harvest before the heat of summer settles in, and then again during the fall once the heat has passed. If you live somewhere with a mild winter and low chances of frost, you might grow cabbage best during your colder months.

When I lived in Houston, I struggled to grow cabbage due to the shortness of the time period during which we enjoyed colder weather. I was able to harvest leaves but never got that large, tight cabbage head.

You can trick cabbage into thinking it's growing under its ideal conditions a bit longer by using frost cloth on cold days and shade cloth on warmer days.

Starting Cabbage by Seed

One of the advantages of growing Napa cabbage over other types is the shorter time to maturity. Napa cabbage heads are typically ready to harvest about 70 to 90 days after being planted by seed, while other cabbage varieties require up to 180 days. Of course, you can start harvesting exterior leaves for all varieties much sooner than that.

Because many cabbages don't like to grow when it's too cold (below 45º F regularly), there's a very specific window during which you can grow cabbage under its preferred conditions. You'll need at least 60 days in this ideal temperature range of 45º F to 80º F for your cabbages to grow in the garden.

To maximize the time cabbage can spend growing in your garden space, you might need to start your seeds indoors, as early as 100 days before your last frost date.

If you're planting directly in the ground in anticipation of your fall growing season, you could use shade protection while the seedlings germinate so that they think they're being grown in the cooler climate they prefer.

If you're sowing seeds directly, place them about 1/4 inch deep. Seedlings should be spaced about 1 foot apart if you plan to harvest the outer leaves regularly.

Consider succession planting your cabbages so that the heads mature at different times, if your growing season allows it. I like a small trickling of cabbage heads instead of an entire truckload at once.

The Best Cabbage Companion Plants

Even though cabbages take up a lot of space, they certainly don't have to be the only thing growing in your beds. Whenever I'm growing something large and long, like cabbage, I like to have short and small plants, like lettuces and radishes, growing around them so that there's always something to harvest from and tend while those bigger plants are taking their time growing. Also, if you just grow cabbage after cabbage with nothing in between, pests would have a field day when they come in! Plant diversity is always preferable.

Radishes, in particular, make a great companion plant to cabbage. They both prefer cooler weather, you can squeeze in a lot of radishes around your maturing heads, and the radishes will actually help to deter pests that like to munch on cabbage leaves. Green onions and chives are also great options.

How to Care for Cabbage Plants

Water

Water is so important for all leafy greens really, but especially for cabbage, which is up to 92 percent water in its makeup. Cabbage likes for the soil to stay fairly moist underneath but not soggy. Water when the soil feels dry about an inch or two down. Regular watering will help to encourage new growth and will prevent the plant from feeling stressed (which would encourage it to go to seed early). I recommend using a drip line irrigation on a timer to deliver consistent water to these salad greens just where they like it, on the soil, not the leaves.

Feed

Normally, if you want to grow leaves, you focus on adding nitrogen to the soil. If you'd like for your cabbage to form a head, though, you'll need to switch up your fertilizing game a big. Nitrogen will help the cabbage form lots of leaves, but it's phosphorus that will encourage your plant to form that compact head.

I recommend using an organic ocean-based product like Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed Fertilizer. If you're shopping around for a phosphorus-rich fertilizer, just be sure to look at the three numbers (N-P-K). Remember, we don't want a lot of nitrogen (the first number). And be sure to read the directions to get the right dosage. Just mix up your fertilizer and pour it around the base of the plants so that the roots can absorb it. Do this about once a week.

How to Deal with Pests on Cabbage

Cabbage is in the brassica family, and just like its kale, arugula, broccoli, and cauliflower cousins, cabbage is a huge attractor of pests, especially as the weather warms. If a gardener has grown cabbage, they have probably found their leaves covered in pests at one point or another, no matter where in the world they're gardening. Specifically, the pests you might have to contend with when growing cabbage include cabbage loopers, cabbage moths, and aphids.

When it comes to garden pests, I like to focus on offense, which means I do as much as I can to prevent pest pressure from becoming an issue in the first place. That means, first of all, having a kitchen garden setup that deters pests, including raised beds filled with nutrient-rich soil. A healthy garden is capable of fighting pests on its own without the need to be treated with a bunch of nasty chemicals.

The second part of preventing involves physical barriers (garden mesh or floating row covers) to keep pests out. In my experience, physical barriers are really the key to organic pest protection. Learn more about using a simple piece of garden mesh to keep bugs off your cabbage leaves. 

Should you notice pests on your cabbage plants, here are three tips and tricks to deal with them.

Ways to Handle Pests on Cabbage

Observe your garden daily. Catching pests early—before they've had time to lay eggs and really feel at home in your garden—can often prevent an infestation and allow you to deal with the pests while they're still manageable.

Spray

If you notice aphids on your cabbage leaves, try giving the leaves and the stem of your plant a hard spray with your garden hose. This is often enough to knock the aphids off the plant, and when repeated every couple of days, enough to solve the problem. If you leave the aphids on the plant long enough, they might attract predatory insects to your garden to handle the problem for you. If ladybugs, for instance, come into your cabbage patch, they'll prey on those pesky aphids. This is why planting pollinator-friendly plants around your garden is so important—you can actually attract beneficial insects that prey on the ones you don't want.

Prune

Prune away any leaves that have been damaged by pests or that have turned yellow or brown. This helps remove extra stressors or burdens on the plant. If your cabbage has large mature leaves that open toward the ground, it's best to remove those, as well, since they can just create a bridge from the soil to your plant. The newer leaves on the inside of the plant are often not affected by pests at all, so only remove a cabbage plant under attack if the infestation has grown out of control.

Add Compost

Spread a couple inches of fresh compost around your cabbage plants to give them a little nutrient boost that will help them fight off their attackers on their own. Your cabbage plants know how to fight off garden pests, and more importantly, your plants want to survive as much as you want them to survive. They often just need a little support from you. Your job is basically to just remove whatever stressors you can from the situation while your plants do their thing.

Overall, don't stress about garden pests. The presence of pests and weeds in the garden is not a sign that you should never have taken up gardening. Pests are a natural part of the growing cycle. It's not that they're not meant to be there at all; they're just not meant to be there in large quantities that throw your garden out of balance. If something's out of balance, you can typically restore your happy little ecosystem with small fixes, not huge battles.

How to Prune Cabbage

Cabbages, as you may know, push their newest growth from the heart and center of the plant. Through regular pruning, you can encourage them to continue to grow new leaves for you.

Start by pruning those older, larger leaves on the outside of the cabbage plant. Once those leaves have opened up and pushed outward, they won't be part of the cabbage head when it forms. And by cutting those leaves, you're telling the plant to focus its energy on forming new leaves instead of making the edge leaves larger.

Another great reason to prune cabbages is their sheer size: one mature head of cabbage can easily have a bigger diameter than a dinner plate. They take up a lot of space in your garden, so if you plant intensively like I do, pruning these older leaves back will mean that there's more room in the garden for other things to grow around them while you're waiting on that head to form.

By the way, keep all the leaves you're pruning for your next salad or stir fry. Bring them inside to enjoy!

How to Harvest Cabbage

Pruning your cabbage is basically harvesting from your plant the same way you would from a cut-and-come again plant, leaf by leaf. Give your cabbage plant time to recover after you've taken some of those older, larger leaves, and then return to harvest more.

To harvest an entire head, use the serrated edge of a hori hori or sharp and clean pruners to cut right at the base of the plant once the head feels firm when squeezed.

If the outside leaves are damaged, prune them so that you're left with just the nice, tight head for storage.

Cooking with Cabbage from the Garden

One of my favorite dishes in China was huǒguō, or hotpot in English. It's basically a big bowl of soup, and you can toss in so many delicious things, like tons of cabbage, and then enjoy it with rice. I also love to stir fry cabbage leaves.

Instead of cooking the leaves, you could use them as wraps, you could steam them, you could chop them up and make coleslaw or kimchi, or of course, you could toss them into a salad. If a recipe calls for any type of cabbage or bok choy, you can run out and grab some of whatever cabbage leaves you're growing as a substitute. Overall, cabbage is a versatile ingredient—many varieties can even be grilled!

Cabbage Nutrition

Just one cup of cabbage has 45% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin C (which is why it was a great preventative veggie against scurvy on long sea trips). It's also high in folates, vitamin K, and many antioxidants. It's a good source of both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber, and like its cousin celery, it falls under the negative calorie groups of vegetables.

Even though cabbage only has about 13 milligrams of magnesium, people used to put cabbage leaves on their heads to cure headaches. Also, ship doctors used sauerkraut, which is cabbage preserved in brine, to treat sailors' wounds and prevent gangrene.

How to Store Cabbage

A major benefit of all cabbages is their ability to store well. In fact, sailors would bring cabbages, which are high in vitamin C, on long ocean journeys to prevent scurvy. You might have noticed cabbage's ability to hold up in your own fridge.

The best way to store your cabbage is to wrap it in a beeswax wrap, taking care to cover the cut stem of the plant.

Even though cabbage stores well, you'll get the best flavor and crispness when you enjoy cabbage fresh from the garden. This is yet another reason to grow your own cabbage. Although cabbage is grown throughout the United States, 78 percent of our total cabbage is produced in just five states: California, Wisconsin, New York, Florida, and Texas. If you don't live in one of those states, your cabbage has a long journey to travel before it ever even reaches grocery store shelves. You'll notice such a difference in both the texture and the flavor when you try homegrown cabbage.

Grow Your Own Cabbage

Cabbage varieties have become a favorite green to grow in my garden, and I hope you give these beautiful plants a try in your own growing space. Thanks for helping me bring back the kitchen garden one cabbage at a time!