How to Grow Baby Napa Cabbage in Winter for High Yields? Four Key Tips

Baby napa cabbage is a small vegetable that looks like napa cabbage, with high nutritional value, usually eaten in hot pot or simply stir-fried, so how can baby napa cabbage be grown for high yields? In fact, the method is very simple, just master the following four high-yield cultivation tips.

1. Soil

Compared with napa cabbage, baby napa cabbage is somewhat less cold-tolerant, so when sowing, try to do it earlier; if you wait until the weather turns cold, it will naturally affect its growth. However, you can grow some on a balcony, since the balcony temperature is not very low and will not be affected by the temperature!

2. Fertilizing

Before planting, choose a fairly good patch of soil, apply some organic fertilizer to the soil, then mix it evenly. It can be soybean cake fertilizer, bone meal, plant ash, or other fertilizers! If you find homemade fertilizer troublesome, you can apply microbial inoculant fertilizer specially for fruits and vegetables. Microbial fruit and vegetable fertilizer fixes nitrogen, solubilizes phosphorus and potassium, and provides sufficient nutrients! The vegetables grow better and better!

3. Sowing

1. Sowing

Early spring sowing: in areas south of the Yangtze River, raise seedlings in February in a large greenhouse plus a small tunnel, preferably with heating wires for added warmth.

Autumn sowing: in the Yangtze River basin, sow and raise seedlings from mid-to-late August to mid-September; when raising seedlings in late September, cover with plastic film. Generally choose 128-cell plug trays to ensure the seedlings have enough growing space.

2. Seedling stage management

When 70% of the seedlings have emerged, the daytime temperature should be controlled at 20~22°C, and the nighttime temperature should be 13~16°C, which is more suitable, to prevent bolting caused by vernalization when the nighttime temperature is too low. For seedlings raised in early February, when the seedlings have 3 leaves and 1 heart leaf, they can be planted out in a large greenhouse or a small tunnel plus plastic film. For those sown in late February, when the seedling age is 20~25 days, plant them out under a small tunnel plus plastic film or under plastic film cultivation.

Autumn seedling raising takes place in a high-temperature period, so it is best to use shaded seedling raising to reduce direct sunlight, weaken the light, lower the temperature, increase humidity, and create environmental conditions suitable for the growth of vegetable seedlings. It is advisable to use black shade netting for coverage. If the plug trays are placed inside a greenhouse, put the shade netting directly on the roof or the greenhouse frame so that the plug trays form a dappled shade.

In summer, choose a plot with good ventilation, dryness, and good drainage to establish a seedling bed. In the high-temperature season, if conditions permit, spray well water on top of the protective facility to form a water film, which can both lower the temperature and increase air humidity. Generally, 5~7 days before planting out, carry out hardening of the seedlings by changing light and temperature, remove all the shade netting, and water once heavily, so that the seedlings adapt to the open-field environment, adjusting flexibly according to the weather.

4. Management

Baby napa cabbage grows very fast, and during the growing period it has particularly high requirements for water and fertilizer, so pay attention to timely watering. During cultivation, keep the soil in a relatively moist state. Baby napa cabbage has many leaves and evaporates quickly, so only then can it grow better!

After the baby napa cabbage seedlings emerge, tidy them up. If some places are too dense, thin the seedlings, so that each plant has enough light. In addition to watering, fertilizer is also very important. Properly use some microbial inoculant fruit and vegetable fertilizer, and the effect will be better!

Basically, baby napa cabbage is harvested 50~55 days after planting out, when the tightness is 70% to 80%; if too tight, it is not convenient for packaging. Remove the outer leaves, and process each plant into a head with a net weight of 170~200 g, 3 heads per bag, then pack into boxes, 30 bags per box. After pre-cooling, it can be transported and sold.