What happened to the cabbage seedlings? 11 most common problems and ways to solve them

Growing cabbage seedlings is long, painstaking work. Every summer resident tremblingly awaits the appearance of the first greenish leaves breaking through the thickness of the earth cover. But in the process of growth, the “full of health” petals, for unknown reasons, can begin to turn yellow, fade and eventually completely wither. The result is financial losses and disappointment in one’s own abilities.

The reasons for poor growth and possible death of seedlings, ways to prevent such situations, and growing truly high-quality seed will be discussed in this article.

Cabbage seedlings have outgrown - what to do?

Among the common problems with seedlings is the situation when they outgrow. Good cabbage seedlings have a normally developed root system, dense, erect stems and leaves of regular shape and intense color. Overgrown cabbage seedlings are characterized by weak roots, elongated, brittle stems and small, often deformed leaves. To understand what to do with such seedlings, you must first understand why they outgrow in the first place. And this happens in the vast majority of cases due to suboptimal conditions for growing cabbage seedlings.

So, seedlings can outgrow due to the wrong choice of time for planting seeds at home. If you planted seeds for seedlings too early, then they may “get into shape”, and the time for planting in the ground has not yet arrived. So the seedlings are waiting on the windowsill, and in the meantime they are outgrowing. Remember - the average time for sowing cabbage seeds for seedlings in our latitudes is no earlier than the middle, or even the end of March.

Among the reasons for the overgrowth of cabbage seedlings can also be a lack of light and an excessively high temperature of its cultivation (especially at night). And even - excessive watering and unnecessary fertilization, which is why the seedlings start to grow too actively.

What to do if cabbage seedlings become overgrown? Carefully study the principles of growing seedlings and try to bring the growing conditions closer to optimal - adjust the lighting and watering schedule, prevent plantings from becoming thicker, adjust the temperature, and ventilate the room.

What to do if the seedlings are overgrown?
We will tell you how to avoid stretching plants and what to do if the seedlings are already overgrown.

Lack of light

A mistake many novice gardeners make is the desire to plant as many seedlings as possible in a small area. The optimal distance between future heads of cabbage in the garden is 45-50 cm with a row spacing of 70 cm. Some cabbage heads will have a higher ripening rate, others will have a lower ripening rate, but not a single sprout should die from such natural unevenness.

If the planting was done more densely than expected, the excess seedling material must be removed.

The same problem - poor access to sunlight - can also come from other plants located next to the cabbage bed. As a rule, these are tall crops with deep roots that cause deep shade - sunflowers, corn stalks.

What to do if cabbage seedlings have stretched out?

Pale and very elongated seedlings with brittle stems are almost a guarantee of a poor harvest. We have already described the main reasons for this behavior of young plants above. They definitely don't like something: sowing too early, too many neighbors, darkness, too high a temperature or excessive fertilizing.

Of course, it is best to prevent the seedlings from being pulled out initially, paying attention to all of the above. To slow down the excessive growth of seedlings, there are several ways:

move the boxes with seedlings to a cooler place;
reduce the volume and frequency of watering;
adjust fertilizing or eliminate it altogether;
transplant plants into larger containers;
provide the seedlings with adequate lighting using special lamps (fluorescent, LED, sodium, etc.).

As an additional means of preventing the overgrowth of any seedlings (including cabbage), we can recommend the use of specially developed retardant preparations that suppress excessive growth of roots and shoots by inhibiting the synthesis of gibberellin (phytohormone of growth). They suppress the elongation of stem cells during their growth, but enhance their division in the transverse direction without compromising other basic physiological processes. As a result, it is possible to stop the rapid elongation of seedlings even in conditions of low light, dense plants and elevated temperatures.

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Cabbage seedlings “fall” - why do plants disappear?

If you grow seedlings according to all the rules and understand for sure that they have not outgrown, but young plants still “fall”, you need to check whether your cabbage seedlings have contracted an unpleasant fungal disease, blackleg.

Black leg in cabbage seedlings is the popular name for rot of the root collar of seedlings. In infected young plants, the base of the stem darkens and softens, and then the seedlings literally “fall”, having lost their support.

The reasons for the formation of blackleg lie in the same incorrect agricultural technology:

contaminated soil,
thickened sowing,
excessive watering,
lack of fresh air,
excess humidity and heat,
sudden changes in temperature.

Measures to combat blackleg, as follows from the above, primarily consist of disease prevention - purchasing healthy seeds, disinfecting the soil before planting, and observing all conditions for growing seedlings.

If the fungus has already infected most of the seedlings, remove and destroy all diseased plants along with the soil, and pick up healthy seedlings into separate containers with disinfected soil, place them in a warm place, shade them from sunlight, and after the soil has dried, water them with a solution of any fungicide (Fitosporin, Baktofit, etc.).

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Errors in agricultural technology

The main mistakes in agricultural technology are as follows:

hard soil - the soil must be loosened for better supply of air, water and nutrients;
overgrown with weeds - weeding is necessary, since weeds take away both space and nutrients from cultivated plants;
overdrying of the soil - sufficient watering contributes to the formation of tight plugs.

Cabbage seedlings are weak and hardly grow - what to do?

But the opposite situation also happens - cabbage seedlings do not stretch, but on the contrary, they grow poorly and remain small and weak.

Very small cabbage seedlings may be formed due to poor quality seeds - perhaps they were too old or weakened and cannot give a qualitative impetus to the growth of the seedlings. If you did not treat the cabbage seeds with a growth stimulant before sowing, do not forget that most seedling substrates themselves are “empty”, so the seedlings will need to be fed.

How to feed weakened cabbage seedlings for rapid growth? The first feeding is carried out when the cabbage seedlings have 3 true leaves. Plants are fed with a solution of complex fertilizers (Mastvorin, Kemira-universal, nitrophoska, etc.), using 0.5 tsp. drug per 1 liter of water. The second feeding is carried out immediately before planting the seedlings in the ground (7-10 days), but a different solution is already used - 1 tsp. urea and potassium sulfate per 5 liters of water. If desired, you can add boric acid and copper sulfate to it at the tip of a knife.

Young plants may noticeably slow down their growth after picking. There may be two reasons for this: either you damaged the delicate roots during transplantation, or you did not compress them well (you did not compact the soil around the seedlings, there were noticeable voids near the roots).

Step-by-step instructions for the procedure

Before sprouts appear

When you have already planted the seeds in the soil, it is not recommended to feed the seedlings until the first two leaves appear. The only thing is that you can prepare the soil before planting the seeds: to do this, mix turf soil and humus in equal quantities and add up to 5% sand. You can also add a little wood ash as a top dressing. After such preparation, plant the seeds in the ground and wait for the first shoots to appear.

At home after the appearance of small leaves

When the first leaves appear on the seedlings, you can feed the plant with the following substances:

Baking soda. Mix 10g of soda and 5 liters of water. You need to spray the cabbage leaves with this solution. This method of feeding will have a good effect on the cabbage in the future: the head of cabbage will be intact, strong, and not susceptible to cracking.
Hydrogen peroxide. Mix 2 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide with 1 liter of water. Water the cabbage with this solution every 4-6 days. By the way, cabbage should be watered with hydrogen peroxide not only during the seedling period, but also during any other period: during the ripening period of the head of cabbage and at other stages of growth.
Banana peel. Banana peels contain many nutrients necessary for cabbage seedlings: magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, etc. To prepare the fertilizer:
Infuse them for 2-3 days, and then mix the infusion with water in a 1:1 ratio.
Water the seedlings with this solution.
Superphosphate. To prepare the solution, mix 40 g of phosphate and 10 liters of water. Water the sprouts with this solution when the first 2 leaves appear.

After the pick

During this period, cabbage seedlings need to be fed in any case, even if there are no obvious reasons for this.

Prepare the following solution:

Mix 3g of ammonium nitrate, 1g of potassium chloride and 4g of superphosphate.
Dilute all this in 1 liter of water.
Water the soil with this solution for 1.5-2 weeks.

Immediately before planting in open ground

Planting in the ground is a crucial moment on which the quality of the crop may depend. To ensure that cabbage absorbs the necessary substances and can develop fully, do the following:

Iodine. Add 6-7 drops of iodine to 10 liters of water and water the soil with this solution before planting the seedlings in the ground. This way the soil will get rid of all viruses, and the future cabbage will not be in any danger. It is also worth spraying the seedlings themselves before planting. To do this, mix 10-15 drops of iodine with a liter of milk and 10 liters of water.
Potassium salt. As already mentioned, potassium is necessary in the period just before planting, as well as at the moment of ripening of the head of cabbage. Therefore, water the plants with a solution of potassium salt (20 g per 10 liters of water) 2-3 days before planting in the ground.

Spots have appeared on cabbage seedlings - how to deal with this?

The next unpleasant situation is that the cabbage seedlings seem to be growing well, but strange spots began to appear on the leaves. What could it be?

For example, downy mildew (downy mildew) is a fungal disease that can seriously affect young plants, and is characterized by the appearance of grayish-yellowish spots with a coating on the lower leaves of seedlings. The stains are best visible after rain or heavy dew. If the damage to the seedlings is serious, the leaves die over time, the cabbage lags behind in development, and sometimes even dies.

Most often, the disease manifests itself in conditions of excessive humidity, and fungicides will help to cope with it.

Peronosporosis, or downy mildew - photo, description, treatment methods
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Small brown-black dots on cabbage leaves may be a sign of infection with mosaic (viral disease) or Alternaria (black spot) - a fungal disease. Alas, viral diseases are practically untreatable - you will have to destroy heavily infected plants, and also remember to promptly deal with aphids and other pests (spray with insecticides). Pre-sowing disinfection of cabbage seeds and careful adherence to agricultural techniques for growing the vegetable can help against the fungus.

Yellow spots that grow over time can also be evidence of progressive cabbage chlorosis. The fact that this is precisely this disease is clearly shown by the leaf veins remaining green. Chlorosis can be either viral or non-infectious in nature (for example, due to a lack of magnesium or potassium in the soil).

Black concentric depressed spots that “grow” out of small green ones may indicate the presence of black cabbage ringspot, another viral disease that has no cure. The only way out is to eliminate diseased seedlings.

Small white (less often black) “marbled” spots may indicate a lack of magnesium. First of all, the lower leaves of cabbage are affected, which begin to lighten from the top, remaining green only near the veins. In this case, liming of the soil and fertilizing with magnesium fertilizers (magnesium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, etc.) are necessary.

Poor lighting

The reasons for poor cabbage growth can be various, and one of them is poor lighting. Indeed, reviews from experienced summer residents and gardeners indicate that the lack of sunlight directly affects growth.

Even a little partial shade leads to the fact that plants begin to lag in growth, and the setting of heads of cabbage is postponed indefinitely. Do not plant cabbage in the partial shade of berry bushes and fruit trees; cabbage does not like such experiments. Maintain a distance when planting - maintain 70 cm between rows, and 30-50 between the plants themselves, depending on the variety.

Holes in cabbage seedlings - what could it be?

There are different pests of cabbage seedlings, but most of them happily gnaw on the young pulp - so their presence is easy to detect by the holes on the leaves of the seedlings.

Who eats cabbage seedlings? Tiny black cruciferous flea beetles and brightly colored cruciferous bugs, caterpillars of cabbage moths, cabbage cutworms and cabbage white butterflies, cabbage leaf beetles (both the beetle itself and its larvae). As you can see, there are many options, and all these insects need to be dealt with urgently before they leave you without a harvest.

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Why do cabbage seedlings dry out?

If cabbage seedlings dry out before your eyes, it is most likely due to an incorrect watering schedule. It needs to be watered as the soil dries out, on average once a week, and always with warm water; it does not tolerate cold water. Cabbage is a moisture-loving plant, so you should not allow the soil to become too dry. Excessive watering, in turn, can cause fungal and viral diseases. Therefore, water should always be in moderation. The room where the seedlings are grown is periodically ventilated.

Drying and wilting of seedling leaves can also be caused by the work of many insect pests, both underground (gnawing the root system of plants), and flying and crawling, which actively eat young cabbage leaves, disrupting their vascular system.

Cabbage seedlings also dry out due to fusarium disease (dry rot). Typically, this fungal disease affects seedlings and adult cabbage grown in open ground. Most often - in dry, hot years. Measures to combat fusarium include compliance with crop rotation, soil disinfection in the fall (copper sulfate solution at the rate of 5 g per 10 l of water), preventive spraying (Agat-25, Immunocytophyte), watering with the addition of Fitosporin-M.

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Incorrect landing

To avoid problems such as Chinese cabbage shoots, plant seeds or seedlings at the recommended time. Arrows appear if the planting was carried out when daylight hours increased. Therefore, early spring or early August is more suitable for planting.

What is the best way to grow Chinese cabbage: seeds or seedlings?

The answer to this question depends on the region. Both of these methods are good, but for those who live in the southern regions, experts recommend sowing seeds. In cooler climates, it is better to plant seedlings, otherwise you may not get a good harvest.

You can sow seeds for seedlings twice during the season: in mid-March and mid-June. If your goal is to preserve the harvest and not use it immediately, then do it in the summer. According to experts, Chinese cabbage often gets sick after picking and is reluctant to take root. You can avoid all this if you sow the seeds in peat-humus pots filled with a mixture of equal parts of organic matter, river sand and garden soil, and then place them in open ground, where they decompose. In this case, a transplant will not be required.

After sowing the seeds, the soil should be slightly moistened, and then the grains should be buried one centimeter into it. Keep your future seedlings in boxes covered with film in a room with a temperature range from +20 to +22 degrees. The soil in the containers should not dry out; it is recommended to spray it with a spray bottle. The absence of mistakes in planting Chinese cabbage will promote the emergence of seedlings in three to four days, after which the film must be removed and the boxes placed in a place where the sun hits the seedlings. To speed up the germination of seeds, they are pre-soaked in gauze for 24 hours. It is better to moisten the material with a special growth regulator, for example, Epin.

Daylight hours for Chinese cabbage seedlings should be about 12 hours, which gardeners often forget about, so a good idea is to purchase an LED lamp, which helps out gardeners in such cases. Proper lighting is the key to the fact that in almost a month the seedlings will have up to five leaves. After this, it must be hardened and planted in the ground.

This stage is needed to prepare the plant for harsher conditions, so take your seedlings outside every day. The first day she should stay there for two hours, gradually this time must be increased to a day.

Planting of seedlings is carried out in loose soil in well-lit places. Make sure that water does not stagnate on the ground after watering

The choice of predecessors is important. If you plant pekinka where cruciferous vegetables previously grew, you will not reap a large harvest, but planted after potatoes, onions and garlic or on fallow soil, it will delight you with large heads of cabbage. . When planting cabbage seeds, many gardeners make mistakes in maintaining the distance

There should be at least 40 centimeters between them. Some believe that if you plant seeds in unprepared beds, nothing bad will happen. This opinion is erroneous, since before planting the soil is carefully dug up, leaving no lumps. Seeds are sown in grooves or holes, lowered two centimeters into the ground. If the soil is not first watered using a watering can with small holes or a hose with a nozzle.

When planting cabbage seeds, many gardeners make mistakes in maintaining the distance. There should be at least 40 centimeters between them. Some believe that if you plant seeds in unprepared beds, nothing bad will happen. This opinion is erroneous, since before planting the soil is carefully dug up, leaving no lumps. Seeds are sown in grooves or holes, lowered two centimeters into the ground. If the soil is not first watered using a watering can with small holes or a hose with a nozzle.

On too hot days, pekinka is not sown, but if the weather is like this, then lightly sprinkle the soil with wood ash, but stove ash will do just fine. If it’s cold outside, cover the bed with a film that allows light to pass through. Remember that when sowing seeds, seedlings appear much later than when planting in cups.

Cabbage seedlings turn yellow - why does this happen?

If cabbage seedlings turn yellow en masse, you may be guilty of the above-described fusarium, chlorosis or downy mildew (their early stages).

Also, cabbage leaves usually turn sharply yellow from the top due to potassium deficiency. Subsequently, the edges of the leaf blades become brown and they die, the plant weakens. In this case, timely application of potassium fertilizer (potassium sulfate, etc.) to the soil should help.

A lack of nitrogen in the early stages is also characterized by slower growth, shredding and a distinct “blanching” of the leaves of the seedlings, turning yellow below. In this case, you can help cabbage with easily soluble nitrogen fertilizers (ammonium nitrate, urea, etc.).

Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium - signs of deficiency and excess in plants
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Why do cabbage seedlings turn red?

We have already mentioned that with a lack of nitrogen, cabbage leaves begin to turn yellow. But this is at the beginning of the process. If the situation is neglected, the lower leaves will continue to change color and turn from yellow to red. The solution is the same - timely feeding of seedlings.

A reddish-purple tint on the undersides of leaves may also indicate a lack of phosphorus in the soil. This can be especially pronounced in cold, cloudy weather, when the roots do not have time to fully absorb useful elements. Rains can even “wash away” phosphorus to depth, depriving small roots of seedlings of the opportunity to reach it. Therefore, cabbage should be fed, for example, with superphosphate. Since the acidity of the soil has a great influence on the absorption of phosphorus by plants, it should be limed in a timely manner.

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Harvest

The ripeness of cabbage heads is determined by touch. The heads of cabbage should look dense and strong. They are cut off with a knife, leaving the lower leaves and a small part of the stalk.

The ripeness of broccoli heads can be determined by the size, color and density of the head. You need to trim the heads directly with a stem of about 7-10 cm in the early morning. Harvesting must be completed before frost.

A ripe cauliflower inflorescence should be 10-12 cm, quite dense. Cut off with a very sharp knife along with the lower leaves. If the plant is not sufficiently developed, it is removed along with the root system and allowed to ripen by planting it in a greenhouse or cellar.

Important! It is very important not only to grow and harvest the crop correctly, but also to be able to preserve it. Store the collected fruits in a cool, dark and dry place. Cabbage is considered an easy crop to cultivate.

If you follow all the recommendations for planting and care, you can get large harvests and enjoy healthy and tasty vegetables all fall and winter.

Cabbage is considered an easy crop to cultivate. If you follow all the recommendations for planting and care, you can get large harvests and enjoy healthy and tasty vegetables all fall and winter.

What causes cabbage seedlings to turn blue?

But sometimes cabbage seedlings acquire very unusual colors - for example, they turn blue-violet. What would that mean?

Most often, this is a “continuation” of the above-described situation with a lack of nitrogen - if you do not take measures to introduce the necessary fertilizing, the cabbage leaves will first turn pale, and then the lower ones will turn red and even turn blue. Most often, such “symptoms” of nitrogen starvation can be noticed in early cabbage in the spring or, for example, in cold rainy weather, when due to the weak activity of microorganisms, nitrogen from the soil simply does not reach the plants. What to do is described above.

Sometimes the leaves of cabbage affected by Phoma (dry rot) acquire a pinkish or bluish tint, although the gray tint of the affected tissue is more typical. As the disease progresses, plant tissues are destroyed and dry rot forms. As with blackleg, it is almost impossible to cure diseased plants. Therefore, they must be immediately removed along with the soil in which they grew. Pre-sowing seed disinfection will help prevent the development of the disease.

The purple color of shredded cabbage leaves may also indicate a lack of phosphorus in the soil. In this case, the “wrong” shade will most likely appear on the underside of the leaf, and will also be accompanied by a general delay in the growth of the vegetable. How to save a plant - see above.

If the leaves of cabbage seedlings darken and turn blue, but first the stems (legs), then most likely the matter is due to temperature stress. For example, this can happen in a film greenhouse, where the air and the upper centimeters of the soil under the shelter have already warmed up slightly, but in the depths the soil is still cold, and access to nutrients is difficult. As a result, the development of young plants is inhibited, and their legs begin to turn blue, eventually spreading the shade to the petioles and bases of the leaves. As the soil warms up and warms up, this problem will resolve itself, plant growth will resume and the blue discoloration will disappear. However, if the situation drags on, the plants may weaken and get sick.

You should not immediately try to correct this situation. Check to see if your cabbage belongs to varieties in which dark seedling stems are the norm (for example, red cabbage).

The general “bluish” appearance of the leaves of cabbage seedlings, coupled with the lethargy of the plant, may also indicate the activity of the cabbage fly, or rather its worm-like larvae. Agricultural technology in the form of deep autumn plowing, careful leveling of piles of soil, proper crop rotation, moderate fertilizing with fertilizers, and weed removal help get rid of the pest. If the plants are already infected, insecticides will help you (karbofos, Topaz, Zemlin).

Cabbage seedlings have turned white - what could it be?

A white coating on the leaves of seedlings, which becomes denser over time, indicates that they are affected by powdery mildew. Over time, the shape of the leaves and stems of affected plants changes. Then the affected leaves dry out completely and fall off. Diseased cabbage should be sprayed with a 0.5% solution of soda ash or Fundazol. Plants will need this treatment once a week for 2-4 weeks.

Cabbage blight is another fungal disease. When affected by it, the leaves and stems seem to be covered with white oil paint. As the disease progresses, the affected areas turn brown and dry out, the leaves become distorted and become covered with swollen clusters of spores. When the disease spreads strongly, cabbage is sprayed with copper-containing fungicides. For prevention - observe crop rotation, get rid of weeds and plant residues in a timely manner.

As you can see, regular and timely care for cabbage seedlings should help you cope with all possible misfortunes when growing it.