Key Technical Points for Head Cabbage Cultivation and Management
How do you manage head cabbage? Please provide guidance. For cultivating and managing head cabbage, you can refer to the following methods: 1. Irrigation. Cabbage is a vegetable that needs a lot of water, and it must be irrigated many times during cultivation. According to the different water needs at different growth stages, it can be divided into irrigation at the seedling stage, the rosette stage, and the heading stage. 1. Seedling...
How do you manage head cabbage? Please provide guidance.
For cultivating and managing head cabbage, you can refer to the following methods:
I. Irrigation
Cabbage is a vegetable that needs a lot of water, and it must be irrigated many times during cultivation. According to the different water needs at different growth stages, it can be divided into irrigation at the seedling stage, the rosette stage, and the heading stage.
1. Seedling-stage irrigation: Generally, heavy irrigation is needed at sowing. After emergence, except that winter seedlings need freezing water before the soil freezes and water is needed at transplanting of seedlings, no water is applied until the seedlings must be watered when they are lifted for transplanting. This is the valuable experience of Chinese vegetable growers in using irrigation to control excessive seedling growth.
2. Rosette-stage irrigation: After light irrigation 1 to 2 times with recovery water at transplanting, irrigation is controlled to firm the seedlings. For the control period, early-maturing varieties should not be controlled too long or too severely, generally 10 to 15 days is suitable, while mid- and late-maturing varieties take longer, about 1 month or a bit more. In terms of growing season, spring and autumn cabbage grow quickly and should be controlled briefly, while winter cabbage grows slowly and can be controlled longer. In the rosette-stage water control, it is necessary both to maintain a certain soil moisture so that the rosette leaves have a sufficiently large assimilation area, and to control water so it is not excessive, forcing the internodes of the inner shortened stem to be short, so that the head can be compact and solid. Avoid excessive seedling firming, so as not to cause small leaves, small heads, and reduced yield. By the late rosette stage, when heading begins, heavy irrigation should be applied.
3. Heading-stage irrigation: From the start of heading, after heavy irrigation, the head leaves grow quickly and need a lot of water, and depending on the weather, water must not be lacking. Generally, after a certain number of days, whenever the soil surface looks dry, heavy irrigation should be applied, and all the way until the head is firm and harvesting begins, heavy irrigation should continue.
II. Cultivation, Ridging, and Weeding
After cabbage seedlings are transplanted and lightly irrigated 1 to 2 times with recovery water, cultivation, hoeing, and seedling firming are carried out. Generally, early-maturing varieties should be cultivated 2 to 3 times, and mid- and late-maturing varieties 3 to 4 times. The first cultivation should be deep, thoroughly hoed and leveled, to help preserve soil moisture and promote root growth. After that, when cultivation enters the rosette stage, shallow hoeing should be done and soil should be banked around the plants, to encourage the shortened stem to produce more roots and favor heading. Before the rows close, weeds should be removed along with cultivation. After the rows close, even though hoeing is not done, any weeds should be pulled out at any time so as not to affect growth and the spread of pests and diseases.
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