Growing the Best Cruciferous Vegetables

5 Growing Tips

1. Use rich soil and compost

• Plant in rich soil that can soak up lots of water. This will help leafy vegetables that love to soak up nutrients from the soil. You do not want to starve your lettuces of important fuel.
• Compost can come in many forms, from home-made compost compiled of old banana peels, apple scrapes, coffee grounds, finely shredded newspaper all the way to professional grade fish waste or manure blend.

2. Keep your transplants healthy and nurtured

• Most cruciferous vegetables like to be in cool to mildly warm temperatures so keep this in mind when knowing your planting zone.
• If you live near a cold to warm region, it would be wise to sow two months before the last spring frosting.
• If you live near a warm to hot region, you can sow at the start of August and carry through December.
• For cold winter regions, when you go to transplant, only pick tighter and smaller transplants that have the best chance to grow properly.

3. Consistent watering

• Cruciferous vegetables absorb so much of the soil nutrients and water, they’ll need to be watered evenly and kept in cool environments.
• Use heavy mulch or deep soil to keep the heads at lower temperatures.

4. Pest detection and prevention

These vegetables tend to attract many pests and it is your job to keep them safe and pest-free. Best ways to do this include:

• BT or Bacillus Thuringiensis acts as an insecticide which keeps leaf eaters off your plants.
• Use plant covers to keep lettuce free of fly-bys and freeloaders.
• Simply keep an eye on your plants and remove pests as you see them.

5. Give plenty of space to your cabbages, broccoli, and kale

If you follow the above steps, you should have large and leafy vegetables yielding and taking up space. Do not smother them and minimize the chances at larger heads. A general rule of thumb is to give one square foot of space to each seedling.

Source

Angela, “How to Grow Cabbage: 10 Tips for Growing Cabbage” Growing in The Garden, accessed July 14, 2021, https://growinginthegarden.com/how-to-grow-cabbage-10-tips-for-growing-cabbage/.