Chinese cabbage Glass: cultivation and care

Content

1 Description of the variety
2 Growing and care
3 Problems and their solutions
- 3.1 Landing dates
- 3.2 Pests of Chinese cabbage
4 Reviews from gardeners
5 Let's sum it up

In Russia, cabbage has long enjoyed honor and respect, being one of the most popular vegetable crops. Therefore, when in the second half of the last century, amazing cabbage from China became famous among gardeners, it quickly aroused everyone’s curiosity. The first and only variety of Chinese cabbage in those days was the Khibinskaya variety, bred at the polar testing station in the Murmansk region.

Much later, many new varieties appeared, among which Japanese and Dutch hybrids are especially popular, mainly for their early ripening and resistance to the formation of flower shoots. Chinese cabbage has a wide variety of forms: there are leafy (forming a rosette of leaves), semi-heading (forming heads of cabbage with an open top) and cabbage varieties. Despite the fact that the leaf forms contain a greater amount of useful substances, the cabbage varieties tend to have a longer shelf life and are therefore more popular. Chinese cabbage is one of the most famous and widespread varieties grown today.

Description of the variety

Chinese cabbage variety The glass was developed in the 90s of the last century in the Moscow region and registered in the State Register of Russia in 1997.

The glass belongs to the mid-season varieties of Chinese cabbage. This means that from the appearance of the first shoots to the moment when the formed heads of cabbage can already be collected, about 65-70 days pass.
The variety belongs to the group of cabbages; under favorable conditions, the heads themselves are formed quite dense, oval in shape, without voids. The heads of cabbage are completely closed so that the penetration of various fungal spores and larvae is difficult. In this regard, the Glass variety can be stored for quite a long time without being spoiled.
Despite the fact that the description of the variety mentions resistance to stemming, when sowing in spring, the cabbage very often goes into the flower shoot. Therefore, it is recommended to sow it in the second half of summer.
Although Chinese cabbage is a light-loving plant, like all its cabbage relatives, it is the Bokal variety that can tolerate relative darkening without a noticeable loss in yield.
The leaves of this variety are dense, inside the head they are pale yellow, almost white. While the outer leaves are characterized by a yellow-green tint.
The heads of cabbage grow of medium size, weighing up to 2 kg.
The taste characteristics of the Glass variety are excellent; it is recommended to be used mainly for consumption in salads. The leaves are juicy, tasty and tender. It is characterized by a high content of mineral elements and vitamins.

Growing and care

There are two options for growing Bokal Chinese cabbage and further caring for it: with the help of seedlings and without seedlings.Considering the precocity of this cabbage, under favorable conditions it can yield two or even three times per season.

Advice! It is especially beneficial to grow Peking seedlings in the spring - this allows you to accelerate the development of plants and shorten the period of their maturation.

Cabbage seedlings

Peking cabbage of any variety is quite sensitive to transplantation, so it is recommended to sow it directly into separate containers. A good option would be to use peat tablets. The soil must be prepared loose, with a neutral or slightly acidic reaction. It is advisable to add 1/5 sand or vermiculite to ready-made purchased soil for breathability. Cups or pots are filled with earth and spilled with phytosporin solution to prevent all kinds of fungal diseases.

Cabbage seeds are planted shallowly in the soil, to a depth of 0.5-0.8 cm.

Advice! Since seed germination is not 100%, it is recommended to place 2-3 seeds in each glass.

If suddenly all of them sprout, then the strongest one is subsequently selected, and the rest are cut off at the very surface of the earth.

Cups with sown seeds are placed in a warm place with a temperature of about +20°C or even more. Chinese cabbage seeds do not need light to germinate. Shoots appear quite quickly - 3-5 days after sowing. Immediately after their appearance, the cups with seedlings are placed in a bright but cool place. It is advisable that the temperature does not exceed +16°C+18°C. Otherwise, the seedlings may become very elongated. The same thing awaits them in low light conditions.

Watering Chinese cabbage seedlings should be moderate - the surface of the soil should dry out slightly between moistening procedures.Plants develop in suitable conditions quite quickly and when 4-5 true leaves are formed they are ready for planting in a permanent place. This happens about a month after germination.

Ready seedlings are planted in open ground according to the following scheme: 30 x 50 cm. Two weeks after planting, they are fed with any organic fertilizer.

Seedless method

To choose a suitable place for growing Chinese cabbage, you need to remember where you grew carrots, cucumbers, onions or garlic last season. It is after these vegetable crops that the Beijing woman will feel best. It’s good if the soil in the garden bed has been filled with humus or compost since the fall. It is not necessary to soak the seeds before sowing. Cabbage is usually sown in a row, leaving a distance of about 45-50 cm between the rows. If a formed rosette of leaves is enough for you, then the plants can be planted with a distance of 10-20 cm between them. To obtain heads of cabbage, the distance is increased to 25-30 cm.

Can sow initially more often, even every 10 cm, in order to thin out the plants after emergence. The seeds are planted to the same depth - about 1 cm. It is advisable to sprinkle wood ash on top of the crops. It will simultaneously serve as a feed for young plants and repel pests.

The crops are additionally covered along the entire length with thin non-woven material. This agricultural technique will help you solve several problems at once:

Protects tender seedlings from low temperatures;
It will shade the cabbage from the hot rays of the sun, which are also harmful to it;
It will help protect crops from the cruciferous flea beetle - this small pest can destroy all seedlings in a few hours.

Advice! It will be better if the non-woven material remains on the cabbage until the heads form; in this case, protection from the cruciferous flea beetle is guaranteed.

Further care of plantings

Chinese cabbage glass is the most demanding in terms of temperature. To get good and strong heads of cabbage, the minimum temperature should be about +12°C, but if it exceeds +25°C, then you should not expect a good harvest.

Peking cabbage should be watered quite moderately; unlike other types of cabbage, it does not like to grow in excess moisture. Provided the weather is not hot, one good watering with non-cold water once a week is enough.

After several leaves appear, it is advisable to mulch the crops with organic materials (straw, rotted sawdust), which will serve as protection against weed and additional feeding.

To improve the formation of heads of cabbage, it is recommended to spray it with a solution of boric acid. To do this, 2 grams of boric acid are dissolved in one liter of hot water, and then 9 liters of cold water are added to the resulting solution.

Problems and their solutions

In general, Chinese cabbage is considered an easy vegetable to grow, although the opinions of gardeners on this matter differ radically. Some people succeed without any effort or much hassle. Others spend a lot of effort on caring for the plants, and as a result, the cabbage all goes into color or is eaten by numerous pests. In fact, there are several secrets and tricks in growing Chinese cabbage, without which taking care of it turns into fruitless work.

Landing dates

Perhaps the most important factor that affects the good growth of cabbage is the choice of favorable planting dates. After all, it is a long-day plant, which means its desire to bloom and bear fruit under conditions when daylight lasts more than 12-15 hours. But flowering and fruiting of cabbage is not at all included in the plans of gardeners, since they need cabbage heads. It can form heads of cabbage only when the daylight hours are sufficiently short. The conclusion is quite simple - it is necessary to time the sowing and cultivation of Chinese cabbage to a period with short daylight hours. Thus, in the middle zone, the optimal time for planting cabbage in open ground is the end of April - beginning of May and the end of July - August.

Unfortunately, the problems with Chinese cabbage flowering do not end there.

Warning! If in the first month of development of Chinese cabbage seedlings they are exposed to low temperatures (+5°C and below), then the cabbage will definitely begin to develop flower stalks instead of heads of cabbage.

This is where most of the problems gardeners have with growing cabbage in the spring arise. Everyone tries to plant seeds in the ground or plant seedlings as early as possible in order to have time to get a harvest during the short daylight hours. But even in May, and especially in April, there are even frosts in the middle zone, not to mention low temperatures. So gardeners rush between two fires, unable to choose optimal conditions. Of course, they can be arranged, but only if there is a greenhouse or hotbed on the site in which cabbage seedlings can be grown until sufficiently stable above-zero temperatures are established.Not everyone has such facilities, so it would be wisest to postpone the cultivation of Chinese cabbage until the second half of summer.

From the end of July, the most favorable conditions for the growth of Chinese cabbage develop. After all, at this time it is still quite warm and the plants sprout and develop quite quickly. As a rule, there is no longer any intense heat. At the same time, the length of daylight hours is also suitable for cabbage to form heads of cabbage. Adult plants can easily withstand low temperatures; at the head ripening stage, they can withstand even short-term light frosts, down to -2°C.

Pests of Chinese cabbage

Another problem that prevents growing a good harvest of Chinese cabbage is the invasion of pests. Cruciferous flea beetles and slugs are especially fond of Beijing.

Against cruciferous flea beetles, the ideal solution would be to use thin non-woven material throughout almost the entire period of cabbage development, as mentioned above.

Comment! When growing cabbage in late summer, the flea beetle has already ceased its harmful activity by this time.

But the fight against slugs can be long and difficult. They are especially dispersed in cold and rainy summers. The method of sprinkling Chinese cabbage leaves with the following mixture works well:

1 liter of wood ash;
4 tablespoons salt;
2 tablespoons dry mustard;
4 tablespoons ground red hot pepper.

You can try sprinkling the beds and the passages between them with a layer of sand, on which slugs cannot move. The most classic way to get rid of slugs is to lay out various traps: boards, bark, etc., and then collect them manually.If the pests have multiplied in too large numbers, chemicals will have to be used. But treatment should be stopped 20 days before harvest.

Reviews from gardeners

Judging by the reviews of gardeners, Chinese cabbage glass is a rather capricious crop, but its taste qualities deserve it to take its rightful place among garden crops.

Veronica, 32 years old, Tyumen

I have been growing the Bokal variety of Chinese cabbage for several seasons. I plant this variety only at the end of summer. It's a little like cabbage, but much more tender. I like it because the head of cabbage turns out dense and closed, and stores quite well. Before storing, I make sure to remove all outer leaves, wrap the heads of cabbage in cling film, and in this form they can sometimes be stored until the New Year.

Larisa, 43 years old, Belgorod

We grew this variety of Chinese cabbage for the first time last year, and we will sow it this year too. It seems to me that it is a cross between lettuce and cabbage. The leaves are tender, like lettuce, and have the juiciness of cabbage. It’s not very difficult to grow it, but in the spring it all started to bloom for us. But when we sown it in the ground at the beginning of August, we were very pleased with the harvest. The only bad thing was that the slugs ate almost half of the cabbage. What is also interesting to note about the “Glass” variety is the roughness of its first leaves. We already thought that it would be impossible to eat it, but then they lay down, and the subsequent ones developed normally. Therefore, the head of cabbage is formed in the form of such a peculiar flower, as in the photo.

Sergey, 37 years old, Bryansk

After carefully studying the varieties of Chinese cabbage, I eventually chose two: Glass and Nika. I sowed both varieties for seedlings at the end of April in the greenhouse, and transplanted the grown plants into open ground in mid-May. After planting, I immediately covered the entire bed with a thin spunbond to protect the cabbage from the invasion of the cruciferous flea beetle. Indeed, this shelter works well, I had a few bushes left outside, and after three days there was almost nothing left of them. And I decided not to remove the cover until the end. Heads of cabbage began to form only in early August. But we ate this cabbage until winter. Interestingly, there were two bushes left in the greenhouse for which there was not enough space in the garden bed. They looked great, pests did not attack them, but they never formed heads. Apparently it was too hot in the greenhouse. I had to use them on the leaves.

Let's sum it up

Chinese cabbage is a productive, tasty and healthy crop. She, like any cabbage, has her own preferences for growth conditions. If they are followed, all difficulties during cultivation can be overcome quite easily.

Chinese cabbage Glass: reviews + photos