How to grow cabbage

Brassica oleracea (Capitata) · Brassicaceae · Vegetable

Cabbage is a cool-season vegetable in the Brassicaceae family, usually started indoors and set out as transplants. It wants full sun (six or more hours of direct light) and consistent moisture — it resents drying out. From sowing to first pick is about 60–100 days. It handles frost well and a light freeze often improves the flavour.

Grower’s note: Tighter spacing (12 in) gives smaller heads better for one meal. Split heads mean it is past ready or got a sudden drink after dry weather.

Sowing

Sow about 0.5″ deep, into soil between 45–85°F — germination is quickest near 75°F. It comes up fast (5–10 days). For an early crop, start seed indoors about 6 weeks before your last spring frost and grow it under bright light.

Spacing & layout

Give each plant about 15″ along the row with roughly 30″ between rows. On a square-foot grid that is 1 per square foot. Allow at least 18″ of loose, workable soil for the roots. It grows well in containers at least 12″ deep.

Fitting it to your season

As a cool-season crop, cabbage does its best growing in the mild weather of spring and fall and tends to bolt or turn bitter in summer heat. A second sowing in late summer, timed to mature as the weather cools, is usually the better crop of the year — and light frost only sweetens it.

Quick facts

When to plant cabbage

Companions

Common problems

Pests: cabbage worm, cabbage looper, aphids, cabbage root maggot, flea beetle.

Diseases & disorders: clubroot, black rot, downy mildew, fusarium yellows.

Same family (Brassicaceae)

Rotate these so they don’t follow each other in the same bed year to year.

Figures are typical home-garden ranges from Cooperative Extension planting guides, cross-checked against multiple state sources. Your variety and conditions will vary.