Sowing napa cabbage - two ideal moments

Napa cabbage can be sown with almost equal success both in spring and in mid-summer. An excellent solution is not to choose between spring and summer sowing, but to do both. In this case, you will be able to include a healthy vegetable in your diet much more often.



In general, growing napa cabbage is not difficult, but spring and summer sowing have their own nuances. They are also easy to do, the main thing is to take them into account. It may turn out that one of the methods is preferable for your conditions. But in any case, you will not be left without a harvest.
 

Napa cabbage does not tolerate transplanting well, so it should be sown immediately in separate containers. Cups with a capacity of 100-200 ml are suitable for this. Fill them with soil, leaving 3 cm to the edge, put a seed in the center, and add a 2 cm layer of soil on top. Carefully, so as not to wash away the soil, moisten it with a spray bottle. Cover the containers with cling film and do not remove it until the shoots appear. At the same time, do not forget to regularly ventilate and moisten the soil with a spray bottle.



If you sowed 2-3 seeds in one container, then after the shoots appear, remove the extra ones, leaving only the strongest sprout.

You need to germinate napa cabbage at a temperature of about 20 ° C, after the leaves appear, lower it to 15-16 ° C during the day, and to 10-14 ° C at night.

After 25-30 days, napa cabbage can be planted in open ground. The best time is from late April to mid-May. Based on this, choose the time to sow seeds for seedlings.

Napa cabbage is a short-day crop. With later planting in open ground, there is a high probability of bolting instead of forming heads.

When transplanting into open ground, it would be a good idea to add wood ash and vermicompost to each hole. If there is a threat of recurrent frosts, the bed should be covered with agrofibre at first. It will also come in handy on especially warm days - napa cabbage does not tolerate extreme heat.



Two weeks after transplanting, the beds with napa cabbage are mulched with dry grass, tree bark or nut shells. The latter, by the way, will also protect the plantings from slugs.
 

The most important thing is to correctly determine the sowing time. Favorable temperatures and daylight hours for napa cabbage occur in the second half of summer. Sowing it earlier is a waste of time and effort.

In summer, napa cabbage is grown without seedlings. To do this, seeds are placed in pre-prepared beds (dug up, seasoned with compost and wood ash), to a depth of 1 cm and at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other and sprinkled with a small layer of earth. Afterwards, be sure to water the sowing site generously. Try to do this carefully so as not to wash away or displace the seeds.

Alternatively, you can deepen the seeds by 1-1.5 cm in the ridges.



Napa cabbage seeds can be planted at a distance of 10 cm from each other. In this case, part of the harvest can be "pulled out" before the heads are formed and added to summer salads.

Napa cabbage is very sensitive not only to the length of daylight, but also to air temperature. At temperatures above 20°C, plants can go into bolting, the same will happen if the night temperature drops to 8°C.

Summer sowing of napa cabbage is not yet as common in our latitudes as spring sowing. But it will definitely please you with the result if you choose the dates correctly. This will allow you not only to diversify the summer menu, but also to save the heads in the fall. This is possible only with summer planting. To increase your chances of success, choose varieties marked "for storage", "does not bolt", "not prone to flowering".

Choose the right time for planting in open ground - the end of April or the end of July - and get two harvests of napa cabbage per season. In the spring, give preference to salad varieties of cabbage, and in the summer - varieties with a tight head.