Thursday, November 8, 2007

Cabbage and Broccoli

I have always had trouble growing nice big heads of cabbage. My broccoli did okay, but not fantastic. This summer I found a book in my grandfather's things that was basically about mulching the vegetable garden. The author wrote at length about how much fetilizer cabbage and broccoli need. This year I amended the beds for these plants with compost, earthworm castings, rabbit manure, blood meal, bone meal, and alfalfa meal. I planted the plants and mulched with cedar mulch. Each week I have either side dressed them with a good nitrogen source (cotton seed meal mostly) or I foliar fed with liquid fish. These plants look awsome. The broccoli has not made heads yet, but if the heads look as good as the plant, we will be eating well. The cabbage is huge. It is just now starting to create heads. The plants have grown so large they are touching each other. They have been out for about five weeks now. I only use natural products and they worked just fine for this. We have had a very dry fall and they are doing great on city water. I hope to be able to post pictures soon.