Cabbage: 60-180 days. Grown from seed or starts. Cultivation is similar to broccoli. Plant 12″-18″ apart. Heavy rains may cause heads to crack, especially in late summer. Growing a large cabbage insures that you’re going to be eating cabbage for a long, long time. It’s better to harvest the head when it’s the size of softball by pressing the leaves down, cutting the head free but carefully leaving the stalk and leaves intact. Anywhere from 2 to 6 mini-cabbage heads will grow from the edges of the stump, which can be harvested as needed. In terms of dollar value per acre, cabbage brings financial returns second only to marijuana. Try growing savoy varieties, which have delightfully crinkled leaves and tight heads. Or plant a variety called January King-it features gloriously colored leaves, green with red veins, all flecked with white.
Carrots: 55 to 110 days. From seed, sown in mid-spring. Carrots need good, deep soil to realize their full potential. Sow them shallow and overplant, picking every other plant for baby carrots through the season until they are 4-6″ apart. There are white, yellow and even purple carrots. Once they are about 3″ tall you can let them wilt slightly a few times. This will drive the root deeper in search of water, giving you a longer carrot. Carrots are best harvested young, because older roots tend to get woody. They can be stored in a root cellar or left in the ground and mulched with a foot of straw. Such winter carrots tend to sweeten over time.
Cauliflower: 50-85 days. Plant 18-24 inches. Grown from seeds or starts. Cultivate much the same as broccoli, but less frost tolerant. Plant in mid-may. Cauliflower heads must be “blanched”-when the head begins to form, the uppermost leaves must be tied over it to protect it from the sun and keep the head white. Self-blanching varieties have been developed. Also available are “Cheddar” which has an orange head and “Graffiti” which features a brilliant purple head.
Chard, Kale and Collards: 35-90days. Grown from seed. Plant collards 18″ apart, kale and chard up to 6″ apart. All these greens are among the toughest customers in the garden. They survive heart and frost and suffer few if any problems. “City Lights” chard is gorgeous; green leaves with white, orange, red, yellow or pink stalks.
Leeks: 65-100 days. Grown from seed. Plant 6″ apart when temps hit 40 degrees. Rather than being planted in raised beds, leeks should be planted 6-12′ below grade in a shallow trench. As plant emerges backfill the soil leaving only the top half above grade. This will keep the base of plant a desirable white. Or grown in a bed, plants can be wrap with a section of newspaper to blanch it. Leeks can be planted tighter than recommended and every other one harvested and eaten immature.
To read all of Todd’s Avant Gardening posts, see the Avant Gardening Series category.
