What to plant after cabbage? After what to plant cabbage?

Today we will look at which crops can be grown the next year after cabbage, and which ones should not.

The yield of cabbage in a garden bed in open ground can reach 10 kilograms per square meter. Naturally, in order to gain useful substances, cabbage during its growth must “pull” many nutrients from the soil, severely depleting it.

The soil is especially depleted of nitrogen, calcium and potassium. Therefore, if you plan to continue growing this vegetable, it is necessary to compensate for this loss and add appropriate fertilizers and nutrients. Without this replenishment, yields can drop by more than 60 percent in the third year.

Recommended fertilizers:

• Many of these substances are found in manure, peat and peat-fecal mixtures.
• It is also recommended to add ammonium sulfate, superphosphate and potassium salt to the soil.
• To achieve optimal acidity (6.5-7.4 pH), lime materials are added.

However, as practice shows, growing cabbage in the same area for several years in a row seems impractical. And the point is not only that cabbage is a kind of “heavy” crop for the land, from which it needs at least a temporary rest.

There is another reason not to do this. No matter how carefully you care for cabbage, it is unlikely that you will be able to eliminate the possibility of diseases and pests of this vegetable. As a result, next year young, fragile cabbage sprouts may be attacked by overwintered larvae and pathogenic bacteria.

Therefore, it is no coincidence that it is recommended to carry out crop rotation and not return cabbage to the place where it previously grew until 3-4 years have passed.

What soil and conditions are needed for cabbage?

If the soil in the cabbage bed is highly acidic, it will be impossible to obtain an excellent harvest of the crop. Excessive acidity causes cabbage to develop clubroot disease. The second disadvantage of acidic soil is the reduced effectiveness of applied fertilizers. Therefore, no matter how generously you feed the plant, it will not receive enough of the substances necessary for growth.

If necessary, acidic soil is limed by adding chalk, dolomite flour, slaked lime, and peat ash. The most suitable liming agent for cabbage is dolomite flour, since it is distinguished by a high calcium content, which is so necessary for this crop.

Another advantage of this deoxidizer is that it can be added to the soil in the spring shortly before planting, while other products are added to the garden bed in the fall, before the soil is dug up.

On a note! Cabbage of all types loves organic matter. During the autumn preparation of the land, it is recommended to add a bucket of compost or rotted manure to the garden bed. The dose of mineral fertilizers can be halved.

If you do not have the opportunity to use organic fertilizers, double superphosphate and potassium sulfate (35g/50g per 1 sq.m.) are added to the soil in the fall, and urea is added in the spring (40-45g per 1 sq.m.). The specified concentration is applied to depleted soil.

If the soil is moderately fertile, fertilizers are added to a minimum. Cabbage still cannot absorb excess minerals, and besides, it is capable of accumulating nitrates, so nitrogen fertilizers are applied with special care.

Based on the soil structure, the best option for growing cabbage is loam rich in humus. In such soil, moisture stays longer and nourishes the roots of plants as much as possible.

The culture is light-loving, so it needs to be planted in well-lit areas. For full development, cabbage needs 13 hours of daylight. If your garden has close groundwater, you need to dig deep grooves around the bed to drain excess moisture.

Features of planting cabbage

When choosing ready-made seedlings, it is important to remember several rules. The appearance of the bushes should indicate their healthy condition, which means:

1. strong stems without black threads and dots;
2. absence of swelling by the nodules, which indicates a clubroot lesion.

Proper planting in the ground is the key to harvest

Before planting, the strongest, healthiest seedlings that have at least 5 fresh leaves are selected. The bushes are rooted into the soil to the rosette level so that the roots are completely covered with soil. After this, the soil is lightly trampled and then watered.

To get a good cabbage harvest, you should prepare the ground for seedlings. In the fall, humus is mixed with turf, adding ash to it, and mixed thoroughly. In addition to the fact that ash is an excellent source of useful substances and microelements, it also has an antiseptic effect that protects seedlings from the appearance of blackleg.

When choosing a variety, it is better to focus on options such as:

• Polar;
• June;
• Belarusian;
• Hope;
• Moscow.

It is not necessary to limit yourself to just one culture. In addition to white cabbage, you can grow equally tasty and healthy cabbage varieties: Kohlrabi, red cabbage or Manoko (which is distinguished by an elongated cabbage shape) and others.

Growing seeds

The success of the event depends on the quality of planting material. Often seeds deteriorate due to improper storage and become unsuitable for use. Therefore, before planting seeds, it is recommended to check them for germination. First, they are wrapped in a cloth lightly moistened with water and left in this form for five days. Then the seeds are placed in cold water, after adding a nitrophoska solution to it.

Proper cultivation of seeds will yield results

You can acclimate seeds to cold by storing them in the refrigerator, setting the temperature to -1 degree Celsius.

Timing for planting cabbage seedlings

When exactly you can open the “cabbage” season depends on the type of product. Early varieties begin to be planted in mid-March, mid-late varieties - in early April. Before planting the seeds, wood ash and superphosphate are added to the soil. The finished soil mixture is placed in a box. Grooves are made on its surface. The distance between them should be at least 10 cm, and the depth of each of them should be on average 1 cm. The seeds are sprinkled with a little earth on top, and the seedlings are watered. From the moment well-developed stems appear and there are five leaves on them, cabbage is planted in open ground.

Is it possible to plant cabbage after cabbage?

This landing option is considered not ideal, but acceptable. If you want to plant cabbage after cabbage next year, it is recommended to add compost to the soil to enrich the soil that was depleted in the previous season. If you plant this vegetable in the same place year after year, you will get:

• depletion of soil for minerals necessary for the development of cabbage;
• active reproduction of cabbage pests that will harm the plantings;
• degeneration of culture due to lack of nutrition;
• decreased yield, increased morbidity even with careful care.

It is allowed to grow cabbage in one place no more than 2 times, then it is recommended to change the crop.

How to care for cauliflower

Watering cauliflower

Without proper watering, it is impossible to obtain the desired yield of a given crop. In this case, you should know in advance how often to water the cauliflower.

If cabbage is grown by seedlings, then after planting the seedlings in a permanent place, it is necessary to water daily until the planted plants form a strong root system. This will be visible by the beginning of active growth of cauliflower. In the future, you need to water at intervals of 2-3 days using irrigation water at a rate of 4-5 liters. per plant. If the weather is hot, then watering should be done every other day. In this case, the watering rate increases to 6-7 liters. per plant.

If plants are grown by seed, then after the emergence of seedlings it is necessary to water 5-6 liters after 3-4 days. per plant.

It is advisable to carry out all watering in the evening to reduce the degree of evaporation of irrigation water.

Fertilizing cauliflower in open ground

How to feed cauliflower to set heads? During this period, you can use both organic and mineral fertilizers. After the plants reach a height of 15-20 cm, you need to feed them with a solution of ammonium nitrate (15-17 g per 12-13 liters of water).

To do this, a hole is dug around the plants and a prepared solution with a volume of 2-3 liters is poured into it. per plant. After 12-14 days, it is necessary to feed the plant with a solution of chicken manure. This working solution is prepared by dissolving 1 liter. fermented chicken manure in 12 liters. water. 3-4 liters are consumed per plant. prepared solution. Before forming the head of cabbage, apply cauliflower fertilizer with molybdenum. This trace element is very important for the normal development of cauliflower.

If, even after the above fertilizing, cauliflower grows poorly, then it needs to be fed with fertilizers containing a complex of humic acids. The best liquid fertilizers for this purpose are Vympel (10-12 liters per 10 liters of water) and Potassium Humate (12-14 ml per 12 liters of water).

Sometimes gardeners are perplexed as to why cauliflower goes into flower. There are several explanations for this negative phenomenon. First of all, this is a violation of growing technology, during which the growing location with unsuitable soil and strong lighting was chosen incorrectly. Sometimes cabbage goes into color due to insufficient watering.

What to plant after cabbage next year?

Cabbage can be an excellent precursor for many types of vegetables. But here, too, the rules of crop rotation have their own nuances.

After cabbage with clubroot

Clubroot is dangerous because it spreads through the ground. This disease affects all plants of the cruciferous family. Because cabbage has very strong roots, the fungus Plasmodiophora brassicae, which causes clubroot, spreads deep into the soil and can harm crops that are related to cabbage.

Vegetables such as daikon, radish, mustard, rutabaga, and watercress are sensitive to this fungus. The pathogen can remain in the soil for up to 5 years. Therefore, during this entire period, vegetables sensitive to clubroot are not planted on the site. In the fall, lime is applied to the place where the affected cabbage grew at the rate of 500-600 g per square meter. After a year, the liming procedure must be repeated.

In the future, it is best to plant in this area:

• nightshade crops (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, physalis);
• beets;
• onion and garlic.

These vegetables are not only resistant to clubroot, but also capable of suppressing the development of a pathogenic fungus in the soil. For nightshade crops, it will take 3 years to completely cleanse the soil; onions and garlic will disinfect the soil in 2 years.

On a note! You can do combined onion-nightshade plantings. In this case, the healing effect will only increase.

After broccoli, Chinese cabbage and others

All types of cabbage belong to the cruciferous family. Therefore, for the next 4 years, it is recommended to plant other, unrelated crops in the garden bed where this or that cabbage was grown. It is important that the successors have a different type of root system and are not susceptible to diseases to which cruciferous plants are prone. The best successors for any cabbage will be the following crops:

• potatoes;
• beet;
• carrot;
• cucumbers;
• zucchini;
• squash;
• salad;
• parsley;
• celery;
• spinach;
• dill;
• peas;
• garlic;
• onion.

It is also allowed to plant nightshade crops (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) after any cabbage.

Crop rotation table for vegetable crops in the garden

Crop rotation rules

For successful growing of plants and good fruiting, it is necessary to take into account the rules of crop rotation. After all, you can often hear from novice gardeners that, despite strictly following the care recommendations, they were not able to get large heads of cabbage. Most often, the reason for this is improper rotation of vegetables in the garden.

Therefore, you need to know after which crops you can plant white cabbage. To understand this, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the rules of crop rotation:

1. When choosing a predecessor, it is necessary to take into account its main diseases and pests. After all, many larvae and pathogens overwinter in the soil, and with the arrival of spring they resume their life cycle. Therefore, it is important that the plant is not susceptible to the same pests and diseases as its predecessor.
2. The need for nutritional components varies among crops. In order to reap a good harvest of cabbage vegetables at the end of the season, it is necessary to plant it after plants that take up nutrients from the soil in minimal quantities.

Proper crop rotation helps reduce labor costs in the struggle for harvest

After what crops can cabbage be planted?

It is best to grow cabbage after legumes, nightshades, onions and garlic. Less favorable, but acceptable precursors are various types of lettuce and corn. Peas and beans are considered excellent precursors for many crops because they enrich the soil with nitrogen and improve its structure, making the soil looser. Plant residues after growing legumes are not thrown away, but used for compost. In this case, they will bring additional benefits.

The only limitation may be that peas are prone to fungal diseases and root rot, so it is not recommended to plant them in soil contaminated with fungus. Nightshade crops, onions and garlic release substances that destroy harmful microorganisms. Plus, these vegetables don't require many nutrients. Therefore, different types of cabbage planted after them will hurt less and give an excellent harvest.

Helpful advice! For medium and late varieties, it is better to choose early potatoes and carrots as predecessors. But it is better to plant early and cauliflower after onions, garlic and green manure.

What not to plant after cabbage

Cabbage is considered an undesirable precursor for cruciferous plants. After it it is not recommended to plant:

• turnip;
• rutabaga;
• radish;
• horseradish;
• rape;
• leaf mustard;
• katran;
• watercress;
• radish;
• cabbage

All these vegetables have the same requirements for soil fertility and the content of the elements they need in it. Cabbage takes almost all the nitrogen from the soil, after which the soil will be quite depleted. In addition, this group of plants suffers from the same pests. Planting related crops will only please harmful insects; they can significantly spoil the harvest by feasting on the juicy leaves.

The best neighbors, what to plant nearby?

If joint plantings are organized correctly, this allows not only a more rational use of the land, but also a beneficial effect on the quality of the crop. Celery has proven itself to be an excellent “neighbor” for cabbage. This crop repels flea beetles, protecting cabbage from their attack. Leeks and dill planted nearby rid the cabbage of cutworms, aphids and caterpillars.

Planting borage nearby will help repel slugs. The proximity to various salads, tomatoes and cucumbers is considered successful. Cabbage produces an excellent harvest when grown alongside spinach, potatoes, chard, beets, beans and endive. Fragrant herbs (thyme, chamomile, sage, mint, rosemary) repel cabbage butterflies from cabbage beds. Undesirable “neighbors” include parsley, tansy and grapes.