Raising a Successful Cabbage Nursery

To those who have been visiting my inbox asking me on how to raise a successful cabbage nursery, below are the easy steps to follow.

1. Always use certified seeds with special attributes, such as tolerance/resistance to pests (DBM) and diseases (black rot) and high yielding.

2. The seed rate is about 250 to 300g/ha. Mind you, this will depend on the type of cabbage you intend to grow such as small, medium & large size heads.

3. Do not set up the nursery in fields previously grown with a cabbage crop.

4. Seedbed preparations should be of 1m in width, 15 to 20cm in height and of a convenient length. Can be 15m, 20m or 30m long. Length varies from farm to farm depending on management preferences.

5. After the beds have been made, broadcast a handful of D or MAP fertilizer plus 3 handfuls of well decomposed farmyard manure or compost per square meter. After broadcasting, work the manure/compost & fertilizer in the soil with a rake or hole at a depth of 5cm.

6. After applying fertilizer plus manure/compost, start making shallow furrows of 2 to 3cm deep at a spacing of 10 to 15cm apart.

7. Thereafter, sparingly or thinly sow the seeds in the furrows and cover lightly with soil, compost or well decomposed farmyard manure. If you have grass, you can use that to cover the seeds. 

8. Management of the nursery at this stage is critical. Make sure you water the seedbeds thoroughly & regularly after sowing for soil not to dry up. As much as you will be required to water thoroughly & regularly, avoid over-watering as this can lead to “Damping-off” disease.

9. 1 to 2 weeks before transplanting, start hardening your seedlings by reducing the frequency of watering or irrigation. If you have put the shade above or over the nursery, it is high time you remove it.

10. To provide a favourable growing condition, it is important to mulch in between the rows of seedlings.

Note: For pest control, always alternate Imidacloprid & Cypermethrin. For Disease prevention & control, a combination of Copper oxychloride + Mancozeb, alternated with Pearl (Carbendazim) will do.

Happy Cabbage Farming!!

by Rodney M. Sikamwaya, Agronomy consultant & project coordinator at Starline Agro Services