By Garry Red cabbage: sowing, planting, growing and harvesting
Learn when to sow, plant, care for and harvest red cabbage in your garden.
🌱 Red cabbage : key growing facts
📅 Growing calendar
Indicative Northern Hemisphere temperate-climate calendar only. Adjust to local frost dates, climate, variety and growing conditions. In the Southern Hemisphere, seasons are approximately six months later.
🔎 Growing specifications
🧺 Harvest readiness & expected yield
When to pick
Harvest when the edible part reaches the desired size and quality. Handle carefully and store promptly using methods suited to this crop.
What to expect
Varies by variety, climate and care
Indicative only; variety, climate and care affect harvests.🌿 How to grow successfully
🤝 Companion planting
Use neighbouring beds for lettuce, peas or onions if their watering needs fit; no companion plant reliably prevents cabbage pests.
↔️ What to avoid
Do not grow brassicas repeatedly in the same bed; rotate crops to reduce clubroot risk.
🐛 Pests and diseases
Cabbage white caterpillars, flea beetles, aphids and clubroot.
🧤 Ongoing care
Keep soil consistently moist, mulch and use insect-proof mesh over young plants.
🧺 Harvest and storage
Harvest at the appropriate maturity for the species; refrigerate promptly.
🧑🌾 From sowing to harvest
Prepare the soil
Firm a compost-enriched bed with pH near neutral; brassicas need steady fertility and moisture.
Sow or transplant
Start in modules or a seedbed, then transplant sturdy seedlings to their final spacing. Fit fine insect mesh immediately.
What to monitor
Inspect leaf undersides for cabbage white eggs and caterpillars; check for flea beetle damage and moisture stress.
When and how to harvest
Harvest when the edible part reaches the desired size and quality. Handle carefully and store promptly using methods suited to this crop.