If you’re growing cabbages at the moment, then hopefully you have some lovely, mature-looking cabbage heads that you can harvest over the next few months. If, however, they look loose and leafy, then read on as this article may help explain…
Gardeners will commonly refer to this as cabbage blindness, where there are a lot of leaves but no actual “cabbage” forming at the centre.
There are a number of possible reasons for this happening:
- Too much nitrogen in the soil
- Planting the seedlings out when the weather is too hot
- Being damaged by cutworms or club rot
- Not getting enough water
- Cold weather
- Overcrowding
- Not having enough time to mature (they can take 70-100 days)
- Not being firmed in (i.e. growing in loose soil)
Unfortunately, if the cabbage head has not formed by now (assuming you planted the plugs back in spring/midsummer and the plants have reached maturity) then it is highly unlikely that it will. But, you can use the information above to improve your success rates next year.
We tend to find that the most common issues occur in cabbages that are too closely planted together or too much water/too hot, and not being firmed in enough is often a problem too. Our recommendation when it comes to planting up next year would be to ensure plants are spaced as per the grow guide, or even a little further apart, firmed in really well and then mulched to protect the soil from fluctuations in moisture and temperature.