Cabbage cultivation

Collard greens is a vegetable that, although it does not look as elegant as lettuce, is a very easy-to-grow herb that has interesting medicinal properties that can be useful at any given time.

In addition, you can have it both in the garden and in large pots , so if you don’t have soil you don’t have to worry since you can also savor the cabbage without having to go buy it.

Index

  • 1 Characteristics of cabbage
  • 2 How is it grown?
  • 3 What is it used for?

Cabbage Characteristics

Cabbage

The cabbage, whose scientific name is Brassica oleracea var. viridis , is a herbaceous plant with a biennial cycle cultivated as an annual  belonging to the Brassicaceae family and native to central and southern Europe. It is cultivated in many parts of the world, such as Portugal, Brazil, the Balkans and in Spain, and its dark leaves make it a plant with a high ornamental value, in addition to having an exquisite flavor.

It grows to a height of about 2m, with a stem that becomes woody as it develops . Its leaves are large, up to 35cm long, the “oldest” green-blackish, and the newest green. The flowers unfold in clusters, and are yellow or white in color. The fruit is elongated, ending in a point.

How is it grown?

cabbage

If you want to have an excellent harvest of cabbage, follow our advice:

  • Sowing : in spring, either in seedbeds or directly in the orchard.
  • Distance between plants : it is important to leave about 30cm between them so that they can develop well.
  • Soil or substrate : it must have good drainage, but also a lot of organic matter. If you have it in a pot, you can mix a universal culture substrate with perlite in equal parts, and add 10% organic fertilizer; On the other hand, if you want to have it in the garden, add a 5cm thick layer of organic fertilizer to the soil, such as earthworm humus or manure.
  • Irrigation : frequent, avoiding letting the soil dry out.
  • Harvest : late autumn/early winter.
  • Pests and diseases : it is very resistant, but during the rainy months molluscs -snails and slugs- must be controlled.

For what do you use it?

collard greens

Cabbage is widely used, especially in cooking . In Portugal, for example, a soup known as caldo verde is made; in Spain it is used to make stews and different broths, such as caldo gallego.

But in addition, it has several medicinal properties. Formerly, the juice of its leaves was drunk five days after giving birth to stimulate lactation, and today it is known that it helps in cases of constipation, relieves the symptoms of colds, and has healing and antidiabetic properties.

It’s interesting, right?

Cabbage cultivation

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