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White cabbage is one of the vegetable crops best acclimatized to the conditions of the middle zone. That is why Russian gardeners and summer residents successfully cultivate it on their plots. In addition, cabbage is one of the main ingredients of traditional Slavic dishes. There is nothing difficult in growing this crop, but only those who have followed the fertilizing regime will be able to collect large, elastic heads of cabbage from the beds - not a single garden crop will ripen without fertilizers.
What to feed cabbage seedlings, what fertilizers should be used at different stages of crop growth, and what is preferable: a folk remedy or purchased dietary supplements? The answers to all these questions can be found in this article.
How many times per season should you fertilize cabbage?
Feeding cabbage seedlings, as well as the amount and composition of fertilizers, depend on several factors. Among them:
- Vegetable variety. Cabbage with early growing season ripens faster than late-ripening varieties of the crop, so you will have to feed early cabbage fewer times. There are ultra-early ripening hybrid varieties with very short growing seasons - such cabbage will only need to be fertilized a couple of times per season.
- A type of cabbage. After all, there is not only a white cabbage variety, but also kohlrabi, Savoy, Peking and several other varieties of this vegetable found in domestic gardens. All varieties have their own characteristics; for normal development they need different fertilizer complexes.
- Soil composition on the site also plays an important role - the poorer the soil in the beds, the more organic matter or mineral components need to be added to it.
- The composition of fertilizers may differ depending on weather conditions: precipitation amount, air temperature.
What do you feed the beds in the fall?
As practice shows, fertilizing cabbage before winter can be more effective than fertilizing seedlings in spring. The thing is that in the case of autumn procedures, the fertilizer components have more time to completely decompose in the soil.
To a greater extent, this applies to phosphorus and potassium, which is so necessary for cabbage to form a head of cabbage or a fork. Cabbage cannot absorb these substances unchanged; in order for the plant to be saturated with potassium and phosphorus, they must change their structure.
It is necessary to carry out autumn fertilizing by digging or plowing the soil on the site. The digging depth should be somewhere around 40-45 cm - this is approximately equal to the length of the shovel bayonet.
In the fall, gardeners usually use organic fertilizers. Their number per square meter is:
- If fertilizing is done with cow manure, 7 kg of fertilizer is enough (both fresh manure and rotted manure are suitable).
- When bird droppings are used as fertilizer, no more than 300 grams are needed.
The benefit of organic fertilizers lies not only in saturating the soil with microelements, but also in the formation of humus with their help, which is especially necessary for loam and sandy loam soils.
If the land on the site is fertile, it is better to fertilize it with an NPK complex, which includes nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
It is important to understand that an excess of mineral components in the soil is just as dangerous for cabbage as a lack of fertilizers, so you must strictly follow the recommendations and proportions for preparing mixtures.
The optimal combination of mineral components for autumn feeding of soil for cabbage is as follows:
- 40 grams of double superphosphate;
- 40 grams of potassium sulfate;
- 40 grams of urea (animal protein.
This amount, dissolved in water, should be enough per square meter of area.
How to fertilize the soil for seedlings
Due to the incorrect proportion of fertilizer, cabbage can develop one of the most dangerous diseases for this crop - blackleg. The disease manifests itself in the appearance of a fungus - a black girdling spot around the lower part of the seedling stem. As a result of the disease, the stem of the plant rots and the seedlings simply die - it is impossible to save already infected cabbage.
To prevent this and other possible troubles, you must follow the instructions on the preparations for feeding cabbage seedlings.
It is better to make a substrate for seedlings from the following parts:
- river sand;
- humus;
- turf land.
It is recommended to heat the components combined together in the oven to disinfect the soil and destroy all bacteria. After this stage, they move on to mineral supplements - for ten liters of substrate you will need:
- A glass of wood ash, which should prevent infection of seedlings by fungus and normalize the acidity of the soil.
- 50 grams of potassium sulfate will be needed in dry form.
- It is recommended to add 70 grams of superphosphate not in powder form, but to first dissolve the mineral in water and pour it over the substrate (this will make phosphorus more “digestible” for young cabbage).
This preparation of the soil for sowing seeds is suitable for white cabbage of all varieties and different ripening periods.
Fertilizers for cabbage seedlings
Today, cabbage seedlings are grown in two ways: with diving and without it. As is known, picking stops the development of plants, because they have to re-acclimatize and take root - this takes some time and is not suitable for those gardeners who strive to harvest as soon as possible.
Many summer residents now use the method of growing cabbage seedlings in cassettes or peat tablets.This way you can germinate seeds efficiently and get seedlings with cotyledon leaves in a short time. These methods require mandatory picking of cabbage, because the space in tablets and cassettes is very limited, although it is maximally nutritious for seedlings.
After picking, cabbage seedlings must be fed to stimulate root growth and speed up the process of plant adaptation. Because of this, the total amount of fertilizing increases, in contrast to the method of growing seedlings without diving.
After picking, cabbage most needs nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus - these are the ingredients that are added to the soil with seedlings. For these purposes, it is convenient to use ready-made fertilizer complexes, but it is quite possible to prepare the composition yourself.
So, if seedlings are grown without the picking stage, she needs:
- During the formation of the second true leaf on the cabbage. Use any complex fertilizers for this. It is best to use the method of spraying seedlings rather than applying fertilizing with watering. The solution is prepared in a proportion of 5 grams per liter of water. The method of irrigating seedlings improves the absorption of fertilizers and also reduces the risk of cabbage becoming infected with fungal diseases.
- Before cabbage seedlings begin to harden off, they need to be fed again. At this stage, plants need nitrogen and potassium, so a mixture of urea and potassium sulfate can be used as a fertilizer - 15 grams of each substance are dissolved in a bucket of water. This fertilizing is applied by watering the soil under the seedlings.
When cabbage seedlings are grown with picking, she will need the following feeding:
- A week after picking, cabbage seedlings are fed for the first time.To do this, use complex fertilizers dissolved in water in a proportion of 15 grams per liter, or independently prepare a mixture of one-component compounds (potassium sulfate, ammonium nitrate and simple superphosphate).
- 10-14 days after the first fertilization, a second course is carried out. At this stage, you can use a solution of 5 grams of potassium sulfate, 5 grams of saltpeter and 10 grams of superphosphate.
- A few days before the cabbage is supposed to be transplanted into the ground, the seedlings are given the final feeding. The most important thing now is to strengthen the plants’ immunity so that they have enough strength and “health” to acclimatize to new conditions. For this reason, the main component of the fertilizer at the third stage should be potassium. This composition is very effective: 8 grams of potassium sulfate + 5 grams of granulated superphosphate + 3 grams of ammonium nitrate.
Seedlings transplanted into the garden bed face a difficult stage of adaptation, so fertilizing does not stop after planting the cabbage in the ground. Their frequency and composition depend on the variety and speed of cabbage ripening.
How fertilizing depends on the timing of ripening
Fertilizer for early or late ripening cabbage seedlings is no different, but this is the case only while the plants are in the house. Once the seedlings have been transplanted into the ground, the gardener must separate early-ripening varieties from species with a long growing season, since they require different fertilizers.
Thus, cabbage of early varieties needs 2-3 fertilizing for the entire season, while late-ripening varieties of vegetables will have to be fertilized at least 4 times.
For this purpose, complex fertilizers can be used, combining organic and mineral components.
Early ripening varieties are characterized by rapid growth and rapid growth of green mass.In order for plants to have enough nutrients at the growth stage, they need to be introduced into the soil on time.
How and what to feed transplanted cabbage seedlings primarily depends on the degree of soil preparation on the site. If organic matter or a mineral complex was added to all the beds in the spring, then it is enough to strengthen the seedlings only with nitrogen-containing compounds, for example, ammonium nitrate or urea. If manure or bird droppings have been dug up with soil in the beds since the fall, then after planting the cabbage, complex compositions of mineral fertilizers are used.
Fertilizer of early varieties
Fertilizers for early cabbage are applied in three stages:
- The plants in the garden are fertilized for the first time 15-20 days after transplantation.. This should be done in the evening, when it becomes cool outside. Before this, the soil is thoroughly watered. Such safety measures are aimed at protecting the fragile roots of young cabbage from burns. As mentioned above, for the first time, nitrogen or a mineral complex is used (depending on soil preparation).
- 15-20 days after the first stage it is necessary to carry out a second feeding. For these purposes, it is best to use slurry or a pre-prepared mullein solution. They do it 2-3 days before adding it to the beds. To do this, half a kilogram of cow manure is dissolved in a bucket of water and the solution is allowed to settle.
- The third fertilization cycle should be foliar. The green mass of the bushes should be sprayed with a solution of boric acid. Prepare a product from 5 grams of boron dissolved in 250 ml of boiling water. The cooled mixture is poured into a bucket of cold water and the cabbage is processed.This should be done when there is no sun: early in the morning, in the evening or on a cloudy day. Boron can prevent the forks from cracking, and if they are already deformed, 5 grams of molybdenum ammonium are added to the composition.
For cabbage, which grows not in the garden, but in a greenhouse, one more, additional feeding is needed. It is performed as follows: dilute 40 grams of potassium sulfate and a half-liter jar of wood ash in a bucket of water. Fertilizer with this composition should be applied several days before harvesting. The active substances of the last fertilizing help improve the keeping quality of cabbage heads.
Fertilizer for late cabbage
Late-ripening varieties require two additional feedings:
- Using mineral components.
- With the addition of cow manure or baker's yeast.
You need to prepare the compositions in the same way as for early ripening cabbage. However, it must be taken into account that the root system of late-ripening cabbage is slightly weaker than early-ripening types; the roots need to be strengthened with a higher dose of phosphorus and potassium. The proportions of these components need to be increased.
A big problem for autumn cabbage varieties is pests and fungal infections. To combat these ailments, it is customary to use wood ash, which gardeners use to “powder” the leaves. If it is important to preserve the presentation of the heads of cabbage, the ash can be replaced with salt baths - between feedings, the bushes are watered from a watering can with salt water (take 150 g of salt per 10 liters).
In order not to saturate the heads of cabbage with nitrates and insecticides, farmers often use folk remedies. To combat insects, you can use herbal infusions of celandine, burdock and wormwood. In addition, celandine can additionally protect cabbage from late blight.
Results and conclusions
Growing cabbage seedlings at home undoubtedly increases yields and improves the quality of the product. But In order for seedlings to be strong and viable, you need to be able to feed them correctly, because both a lack of minerals and their excess are destructive for delicate plants.
After transplanting the seedlings into the soil, fertilizing is not stopped; on the contrary, the gardener must strictly adhere to the fertilizer application schedule. This is the only way to grow large and tight heads of cabbage that can be stored for a long time and will not crack.
