In a recent blog, Pam Dawling, the author of two books, Sustainable Market Farming and The Year-Round Hoophouse shared tips on successful Spring cabbage growing. Cabbages can be reliable workhorses, providing large harvests over long periods. In colder regions, cabbages are planted only in the spring and grow all summer, into the fall and winter, until cold weather kills them. In the South, they are a spring/early summer and a fall/overwintered crop,
as it’s too hot to grow them in the summer. In parts of California and the Pacific Northwest, they’ll grow year-round. Cabbages do best on fertile, well-drained soil with adequate moisture and a lot of potassium. For quick-maturing cabbage, she chooses Early Jersey Wakefield, Golden Acre and Farao. In early spring, transplants have the advantage over direct-seeded crops — they grow faster under protected conditions and bring earlier harvests. At other times of year, you may prefer to direct seed.