Growing butter cabbage: sowing, care and harvest time

Grow butter cabbage in your own garden: We present suitable varieties and give tips on sowing, care and fertilization, right through to harvest.

The butter cabbage (Brassica oleracea spp. capitata convar. costata), to date It is not really clear whether it is a kind of savoy cabbage or a type of cabbage with particularly loose cabbage heads and light green, ruffled foliage. At the time of the former GDR, butter cabbage was extremely popular because of its tender and particularly tasty leaves. This almost forgotten type of cabbage can hardly be found in the grocery store. If you're lucky, you might stumble across it at a local farmer's market. In isolated regional, mountainous areas it is still cultivated here and there. The loose volume of the head is a thorn in the side of most farmers, because it can hardly be harvested mechanically and further processing is also difficult. Nevertheless, the butter cabbage is very delicate and an excellent type of cabbage for growing in your own garden. Although the delicate leaves cannot be stored for very long, they can be harvested regularly and fresh as needed.

Growing butter cabbage: this is how it works step by step

1. With a bit of luck, you can buy butter cabbage seeds from one or the other high-quality seed dealer on the internet.
2. The seeds of butter cabbage can be sown from mid-March. Our Plantura organic tomato & vegetable soil is particularly suitable for this. At almost 20 degrees, the cabbage seeds need about 2 weeks to germinate. Our recommendation is a sunny windowsill, but a cold frame can also be used. A fleece cover is suitable for protection against night frost.
3. When the seedlings are about 10 cm tall, they can be transplanted.
4. When planting out, you should ensure a reasonable distance. There should be about 60 cm between the plants and at least 80 cm between the individual rows in the bed.
5. In the first few days and weeks, the otherwise very robust cabbage plants are most vulnerable, and slugs in particular can be dangerous here.Butter cabbage is extremely resistant to other cabbage diseases.
6. A nutrient-rich soil is an advantage, so you can strengthen your butter cabbage with fertilizer - for example with our Plantura organic tomato fertilizer. Sufficient watering should be ensured during hot summer days.
7. During midsummer you can already harvest, depending on your needs or even the whole plant. Our recommendation: harvest the cabbage from the outside in!

Important tip: You can store butter cabbage in a cool place for a few weeks, but the storage time is not comparable to savoy cabbage or white cabbage. The outer leaves quickly lose their bite and wilt.