DELIVERY INFO: If you order spring plants today we expect to ship from mid-May onwards. - See FAQs for more info.
Kalibos Red (Red Pointed Cabbage)
(10 Plug Plants)
Ready-to-plant organic plugs
Good for raised beds
Plant from spring to late summer
Estimated delivery from mid-May
£5.99
A red cabbage that is slow to bolt
The Kalibos Red Cabbage is a lovely addition to the garden, best known for its distinctive red/purple colour and pointed shape. It has a sweet flavour making it great for shredding and adding to salads and slaws. It tends to be slow to bolt, making it a good choice for summer planting. It is fairly quick growing and should be ready for harvesting in late autumn or early winter.
Number of plants: 10 plug plants
Variety: Kalibos Red (organic*)
In the kitchen: This variety of cabbage is perfect for shredding into a tasty slaw or can be used in a stir fry or braised in the usual way to accompany winter roasts!
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[blogtitle] => Some Helpful Articles about Growing Cabbages
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[post_date] => 2020-07-16 14:51:53
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[post_content] => For those of you keen to plan for a crop of year round cabbages, kale, broccoli and cauliflower, here's a quick guide of when to plant and when to harvest... this is a rough guide only and will depend on how warm/cold/rainy/frosty/snowy it is during the growing season!!
Our current brassica plants will be available until early August, then we will have a new batch of autumn brassica plants available for despatch in September and October.
[post_title] => A Brassica Planting & Harvesting Calendar
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[post_content] => One of the classic gardening errors when growing cauliflowers and cabbages lies in letting the soil get too warm for them. They really prefer cooler temperatures, which isn't normally hard in the UK, but even just a week or two of hotter days can cause the plants stress.
What happens when the plants get too hot?
With too much heat, the plants tend not to form healthy hearts - instead of producing a firm, round cabbage head the cabbages will remain loose leaved, and instead of producing a tight cauliflower, the cauliflower plant may produce broccoli-like sprouting florets instead, if at all.
How hot is too hot?
Once temperatures start to creep above 18c or 19c and into the 20s for longer than a few days, cabbages and cauliflowers will start to notice.
How can I keep them cool?
There are several ways you can help, and you may choose to do a combination of the below, especially if you live in a drier part of the country where heatwaves are a little more common.
Plant them in a slightly shaded spot
Although the plants do need some sun, they don't need it all day long. 5 to 6 hours of full sun should be adequate, and this can be early in the morning or in the late afternoons. Having the partial shade or a few hours of more full shade will help to prevent the soil from getting too hot. As long as the soil remains reasonably cool, the plants will be able to tolerate the higher air temperatures.
Dig in plenty of compost when planting
This will just help the soil consistency and improve moisture retention a little. Be sure to firm them in really well once you have planted them though, as this will also help them establish a stronger root system and prevent the plants from rocking in the wind etc (which can be another cause of not producing cabbage heads or cauliflowers.
Mulch well around the base of plants
This is another excellent way of keeping the soil cool and if you use compost as a mulch then it will help to provide nutrients too so it's a double win. All you need to do is spread a thick layer of compost (or other organic matter, but we really favour compost) in between the plants, particularly around the base of the stem.
Water thoroughly in the mornings
During dry spells, make sure the plants get plenty of water early in the morning that can be soaked down into the soil. The moisture will help to keep the soil temperature down a little as the day warms up.
[post_title] => Cool is best for Cabbages and Cauliflowers
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[post_content] => Back in July I planted out several red cabbage seedlings with visions of harvesting beautifully neat, deep purple cabbages to cook up for Christmas Day. Sadly, the vast majority of my cabbage patch babies did not survive. Slugs and pigeons can be very ruthless I find. I felt a bit like Nemo's father, finding just one surviving baby one morning and, like him, I have been a little over-protective.
But it seems that all the nurturing in the world hasn't been enough for this cabbage and it hasn't grown up properly. It's headless. It has plenty of leaves but there's no "cabbage" at the centre. After some research I now know a bit more about this condition, which is apparently called "blindness".
What causes cabbage blindness?
There are a number of possible reasons:
Too much nitrogen in the soil
Planting the seedlings out when the weather is too hot (I don't think this would have been the problem!)
Being damaged by cutworms or club rot
Not getting enough water
Cold weather
Overcrowding
Not having enough time to mature (they can take 70-100 days)
Not being firmed in (i.e. growing in loose soil)
Sometimes it can be a bit of a minefield! It's difficult to say with any certainty where my little cabbage went wrong, but I'd imagine a combination of some of the points above were the cause. One thing I have read is that if you puddle in the seedlings (fill the hole with water several times as you plant them before firming them in) then this can really help them grow well. So, I shall definitely try again next July, but I will be puddling in, firming the soil and making sure they're well spaced and well watered. In the meantime, I'm going to leave my little cabbage plant in the ground a little longer, just in case!
[post_title] => Diary of a Rocket Gardener - Why hasn't my cabbage formed a head?
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[post_content] => Absolutely the best way to avoid caterpillars from chomping through your brassica crops is to regularly check for eggs over the next few weeks. Even if they are growing under netting, it is wise to check the leaves for eggs (and caterpillars) two or three times a week if you can - they have been a little later to become active this year, but we've seen plenty of them flitting around lately and their activity is likely to continue well into September or October.
Which plants to check:
Kale - Cavolo Nero, Curly Kale & Red Russian Kale
Broccoli - Purple Sprouting & Green Calabrese
Cauliflower
Romanesco
Cabbage - Red Cabbage, White Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage, Spring Greens
Turnip & Swede
Brussels Sprouts
Where to check:
Underside of leaves
In the nook between stem and leaf
In the cabbage heart
On new florets that might be forming
What to look for:
Clusters of eggs - these could be pale green, dark green or yellow
Individual eggs - these are usually white or yellow
Caterpillars
Holes in leaves
What to do:
Wipe off eggs with kitchen paper
Remove caterpillars carefully - pop them in a bucket and redistribute them to another part of the garden.
Pop an insect mesh net over brassica plants to prevent butterflies from getting to them to lay their eggs.
When it comes to harvesting:
If you're worried about caterpillars in your broccoli harvest, or any other brassica harvest, then you can soak the harvested crops in lukewarm water with a splash of white vinegar for a few minutes - any caterpillars will float to the surface. Then you can remove them, rinse your brassicas and cook them as normal!
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[post_content] => As colder weather approaches, you may find your cabbages nearing maturity (if they haven't already done so.)
You'll know when your cabbages are ready to harvest because they will have formed a firm head in the centre of the plant. Hopefully, this will grow to be a reasonable size, a bit smaller than a football but definitely bigger than a tennis ball. You may see some of the outer leaves beginning to grow away from the cabbage head and turn yellow/brown. This is usually a good sign that the cabbage has reached maturity.
Depending on when this happens, you may or may not need to harvest quickly. If the plant reaches maturity in the next week or so, while we still have warm weather then you may not want to risk the cabbage head from splitting (which it can do if it over-matures and draws up too much water/nutrients too quickly.) If the cabbage does start to split (it looks as if something has hacked into the cabbage head and ripped it) then just pull the cabbage up and cut off the good parts so that you can cook what you can.
If the plant is only just beginning to form a head now, and reaches maturity in November, for example, then once the weather is colder there is no harm in leaving the plant to stand in the ground as it won't do any active growing once temperatures drop to around 5c and daylight hours are that much shorter. They will withstand frost well, and actually many gardeners find that the flavour changes for the better after a few frosts.
[post_title] => Do I have to harvest cabbages straight away?
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[post_content] => If you've had problems in the past with getting cabbages to form a heart, then this article will shed a little light on the situation!
Pests & Diseases:
Like all brassicas, cabbages are susceptible to certain pests and diseases, so in the first instance it is crucial to protect them from the offset.
Cabbage Root Fly - use brassica collars (see below)
Caterpillars - use a fine insect-proof net/mesh to protect plants from butterflies
Pigeons - net your plants
Slugs - set down beer traps, do a dusk slug patrol, water in the mornings rather than evenings etc. (See below)
Club Root - avoid planting in an infected bed (i.e if you've experienced this disease in the past, it is best to plant them in a new bed) and add fresh compost at the start of the season to lift nutrient levels.
Forming Hearts:
In addition to the above, there is one other potential problem with growing cabbages, and that is when the cabbages fail to form tight hearts towards the middle/end of the season, instead producing lots of open leaves. This usually happens for the following reasons:
Not enough organic matter - make sure you add plenty of compost to the soil when you plant your cabbages. Homemade compost is ideal.
Soil not firm enough - when you plant the cabbages, be sure to firm them in well. It helps with their root structure, and this in turn prevents them from becoming 'stressed' and thus they don't have to form loads of leaves or bolt early.
Drought - a long dry spell will stress the plants, and they will produce leaves before bolting as a result. Water well and often during dry spells, and add a mulch to prevent the soil underneath from drying out and getting too hot.
[post_title] => How to Grow Cabbages Well
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For those of you keen to plan for a crop of year round cabbages, kale, broccoli and cauliflower, here’s a quick guide of when to plant and when to harvest…...
One of the classic gardening errors when growing cauliflowers and cabbages lies in letting the soil get too warm for them. They really prefer cooler temperatures, which isn’t normally hard...
Back in July I planted out several red cabbage seedlings with visions of harvesting beautifully neat, deep purple cabbages to cook up for Christmas Day. Sadly, the vast majority of...
Absolutely the best way to avoid caterpillars from chomping through your brassica crops is to regularly check for eggs over the next few weeks. Even if they are growing under...
As colder weather approaches, you may find your cabbages nearing maturity (if they haven’t already done so.) You’ll know when your cabbages are ready to harvest because they will have...
If you’ve had problems in the past with getting cabbages to form a heart, then this article will shed a little light on the situation! Pests & Diseases: Like all...
Thank you so much for a safe delivery of my climbing French beans. They look lush and healthy and not a bit of plastic in sight. Well done ?. I am enjoying the amazingly helpful booklet too. You have another happy customer!
M.M
“”
Just a quick message to say your packaging is excellent, plants arrived unscathed unlike a recent order from T&M which though shrouded in plastic, plants were DOA. The leeks are looking a bit down but hopefully will perk up!
S.M
“”
So many ideas and prompts on what to do and when. I remember learning so much from my grandad about growing, the weekly ideas is like having a perpetual grandad!
What to look for:
