Key Techniques for Growing Yellow-Heart Cabbage and Field Management Methods
Juanwo cabbage, also known as yellow-heart cabbage, has a long history of cultivation in Xinyang and is a specialty vegetable of southern Henan. Yellow-heart cabbage has round leaves that form a pitted, nest-like shape, with outer leaves green and lying flat on the ground, heart leaves egg-yellow, leaf tips curling outward, and leaves thick and tender, making it deeply loved by people. So what are the cultivation techniques for yellow-heart cabbage?
1. Yellow-heart cabbage is usually planted in autumn. Before planting, deeply plow the soil and apply sufficient base fertilizer. After sowing and emergence, water frequently, fertilize reasonably, and pay attention to pest and disease control in the later stages.
2. Sow at the right time and cultivate strong seedlings. In the Huai River region, sowing is generally done from late August to early October. Choose a seedbed (the previous crop in the seedbed should not be a cabbage-type crop), apply sufficient base fertilizer, deeply plow the soil, level it and make beds 1 m wide and of unlimited length, sow evenly, with a sowing rate of about 0.8 kg per mu of seedbed. The ratio of seedbed to field is 1:7-8. After emergence, thin the seedlings in time to a spacing of 3.3-5 cm, with a seedling age of 25-30 days. During the seedling period, water frequently and pay attention to controlling striped flea beetles, cabbage caterpillars, aphids, and so on.
3. Prepare the soil carefully and plant at a reasonable density. After harvesting the previous crop, deeply plow and sun the soil in time, then use the whole-layer fertilization method, applying 3000-4000 kg of decomposed compost or barnyard manure and 2000-3000 kg of human excrement and urine per mu as base fertilizer, level and make beds 1.7-2 m wide with ditches 30-40 cm wide.
What is the yield per mu of yellow-heart cabbage?
Yellow-heart cabbage has strong stress resistance, wide adaptability, high yield, a long suitable sowing period, and is especially tolerant of low temperatures. Generally, it can be marketed successively 40 days after transplanting, and after maturity it can remain for more than 30 days under low-temperature conditions of -5°C. It has the beautiful name “golden flowers in the snow”; the average yield per mu can reach more than 4000 kg; seedlings can be raised from August to October, and transplanting can be done from September to November. The supply period to the market in autumn and winter lasts as long as 5 months, making it an ideal vegetable variety for the cold winter season.