HOW TO GROW Summer Cabbage

Cabbage is a cool season crop that does best before the full heat of summer. Choose a spring or summer variety that matures quickly like ‘Cape Spitz’ (sugarloaf type) ‘Copenhagen Market’, ‘Glory of Enkhuizen’ or Chinese cabbage ‘Michihili’.

Get off to an early start by sowing seed in seed trays six to eight weeks before the last frost. Keep the seed trays in a warm, sheltered space or indoors on a heated pad or hot tray on its lowest setting. Make sure the mix doesn’t dry out.

Once the seedlings have germinated, harden them off before planting out. Put the seedling trays in the sun during the day and back into shelter at night until after the last frost (mid-September) when they can be planted out.

Before transplanting prepare the bed where the cabbage is to grow. Dig in well-rotted manure or compost and a dressing of lime that increases soil fertility by releasing locked-up plant food in the soil.