The Practical Garden-Book / Containing the Simplest Directions for the Growing of the Commonest Things about the House and Garden

by Charles Elias Hunn; L. H. Bailey

Cabbage. For an early crop, the plants must be started either in February or early March, or the previous September and wintered over in coldframes. This latter method was once a common practice by gardeners near large cities, but the building of greenhouses to replace the many hotbeds of the market-gardener has changed the practice in many localities, and now most of the early Cabbages in the north are grown from seed sown in January, February or March. The plants are hardened off in March and early April and planted out as early as possible. The private grower, or one with a small garden, may often procure his early plants from the market-gardener much cheaper than he can grow them, as usually only a limited number of early Cabbage plants are wanted; but for the midseason and main crop, the seed may be sown in May or June, setting the plants in July.

Early Cabbage

For early planting, the number of varieties is limited to three or four. For an intermediate crop the list is more extended, and the late varieties are very numerous. The early list is headed by the Jersey Wakefield, a variety which heads very quickly, and, although not one of the solid kinds, is generally grown. The Early York and Winnigstadt are good varieties to follow it. The latter especially is solid and of very good quality. For the midseason, the Succession and All Season are of the best, and for the winter supply the Drumhead, Danish Ball and Flat Dutch types are the leaders. One of the best of the Cabbages for table use is seldom seen in the garden—the Savoy Cabbage. It is a type with netted leaves, making a large, low-growing head, the center of which is very solid and of excellent flavor, especially late in the fall, when the heads have had a slight touch of frost. Savoy should be grown in every private garden.

The seed-bed should be made mellow and rich. A good border will do. The seed is sown preferably in rows, thus allowing thinning of the plants and the pulling of any weeds that germinate. The young plants will well repay attention to watering and thinning. The rows should be 3 or 4 in. apart. When the plants are large enough to transplant, they may be planted where early vegetables have been grown. Set the plants from 18 to 24 in. apart in the row, the rows being 3 ft. apart for the medium-growing kinds. One ounce of seed will furnish about two thousand plants. All Cabbages require deep and rich soil, and one that holds moisture well.

The best remedy for the Cabbage worm is to kill the first brood on the very young plants with Paris green. After the plants begin to head, pyrethrum or salt water may be used. On a small area, hand-picking may be recommended.

The maggot is the most serious Cabbage pest. After studying the seventy odd remedies proposed, Slingerland concludes that 6 are efficient and practicable: growing the young plants in closely covered frames; tarred paper cards placed snugly about the base of the plants to keep the fly away; rubbing the eggs from the base of the plant; hand-picking of the maggots; treating the plants with emulsion of carbolic acid; treating them with carbon bisulfide. The insecticidal materials are injected or poured into the soil about the base of the plant.

Respecting these two insecticides, Slingerland remarks: “Always use the crude carbolic acid, as it is much cheaper than the purified and is nearly, if not quite, as effective. It will probably be safer if used as an emulsion than if simply diluted with water. We would advise that it be made by the follow formula: 1 pound of hard soap or 1 quart of soft soap dissolved in 1 gallon of boiling water, into which 1 pint of crude carbolic acid is then poured and the whole mass agitated into an emulsion, which will remain in this condition for a long time. In treating the plants, take one part of this standard emulsion and dilute it with 30 equal parts of water; it probably can be used stronger without injury to the plants. If the emulsion is cold and semi-solid, use several parts of warm water at first. Begin the treatment early, a day or two after the plants are up, or in the case of Cabbages and Cauliflowers the next day after they are set in the field, and repeat it once each week or 10 days until about May 20 in our state. While we have little faith in the preventive effects of the early treatments, we do believe that the emulsion will then kill many of the eggs and recently hatched maggots. If it could be applied with some force through a syringe or force pump, it might not be necessary to go to the trouble of first removing some of the earth from about the plants. It must be remembered that its success will depend on the eggs or maggots being hit with it. None of the Cabbages in our experiment were injured in the least by an application containing nearly twice as much of the acid, and there is but little danger of its injuring the tenderest foliage of radishes, turnips or onions; if any injury manifests itself on these crops, dilute the emulsion with 40 or 50 or more parts of water, instead of 30. A knapsack or wheelbarrow sprayer would prove a very useful instrument in applying the emulsion on a large scale.”

The carbon bisulfide is best injected into the soil by means of a long-nosed syringe. Slingerland (Cornell Bulletin 78) illustrates a specially made syringe or injector for this purpose: “Thus Cabbage plants can be treated once, and once is usually sufficient, at the rate of about 10 plants for 1 cent for the liquid, using about 1 teaspoonful to each plant. As the injector will last for years, and several neighbors might join in the purchase and use of one instrument, its cost would practically not influence this estimate of the cost of killing the maggots. We believe it is the cheapest, most effective, and most practicable method yet devised for fighting this pest on crops of Cabbages and cauliflowers; on crops of radishes, turnips, or onions it will probably be too expensive except where choice or new varieties are attacked. The carbolic acid emulsion will prove the most practicable on these last crops.”

The club-root, which causes the roots to become greatly thickened and distorted, is difficult to manage if Cabbages or allied plants are grown continuously on land in which diseased plants have been raised. Changing the location of the Cabbage or Cauliflower patch is the best procedure. If very different crops, as corn, potatoes, peas, tomatoes, etc., are grown on the land, the disease will be starved out in two or three years.