Peking cabbage appeared on the Russian market relatively recently, but has ceased to be exotic. Adherents of a healthy diet are happy to include it in their diet. In terms of composition, Peking cabbage is in no way inferior to white cabbage, it contains a large amount of proteins, a whole set of vitamins and mineral salts. No wonder in the Celestial Empire it is considered the source of longevity. The main advantage of a vegetable is the ability to maintain its beneficial properties throughout the winter. Peking cabbage is delicious in any form: pickled, sauerkraut, salted and, of course, in vegetable salads. Delicate green leaves add spice and sophistication to each dish. It is especially indispensable in winter and early spring, when the human body is so in need of fresh greenery. This annual vegetable crop has a short growing season of no more than 2 months and can be grown all year round.
Is it possible to grow Chinese cabbage on a windowsill
Peking cabbage is easy to grow by yourself, and for this you do not need to have a summer cottage. A vegetable garden with vitamin greens can be arranged directly on a windowsill or a closed balcony. A window on the south side is quite suitable for a culture; it does not need additional lighting – even with a short winter day, it has enough light. She feels great in a room or on a loggia and yields a harvest in 25-30 days.
Peking cabbage can be grown on a windowsill even in winter – it does not need a long day of light
Moreover, green cabbage leaves can be obtained not only when grown from seeds. The used head of cabbage can give a start for a new crop. For this, the lower part of the head of cabbage is cut off by 5–7 cm and lowered into water. Very quickly, roots and young leaves appear from the stump. Of course, the harvest will not be so plentiful and cabbage rolls are unlikely to be prepared, but for a salad or a sandwich, fresh herbs will be enough.
Peking cabbage stalks can be re-harvested by placing the used head in the ground or in a container with water.
Very often, purchased Peking cabbage is loaded with chemicals. Growing indoor greens will allow you to eat organic foods and support your weakened immune system during the winter months.
Video: we grow Peking cabbage from a stump
What varieties are suitable for growing at home
To grow Peking cabbage on a windowsill, it is best to use early ripening leafy varieties with small rosettes, since a large area of nutrition is needed to form full-fledged dense heads of cabbage.
The following varieties are suitable for home cultivation:
- The spring is a variety of early ripening, the harvest gives in 28 days. Forms a rosette with a diameter of 20–35 cm, weighing 150–200 g. Light green leaves with a wrinkled surface, sourish in taste. The changes in the environment do not affect the plants – they easily tolerate a lack of light and a drop in temperature;
Peking cabbage of the Rodnik variety has light green leaves, sourish in taste
- Vesnyanka is a leafy variety that has a short period of time – after the emergence of shoots, it reaches ripeness in 25–35 days. The weight of the fruit is small – 250 g. The variety is valued for its high content of vitamin C and excellent taste characteristics of juicy delicate greens. Resistant to flowers;
- Khibinskaya is the precocious variety most often grown in the apartment. The cold-resistant lettuce plant is the earliest source of vitamins: in winter, already 20–35 days after sowing the seeds, an elongated-cylindrical head of cabbage with a spreading rosette is formed. The tender, succulent leaves are mainly used for making salads;
Khibinskaya cabbage – cold-resistant salad plant
- Semi-cabbage is a variety with a small rosette 25 cm high, weighing 40–100 g. Ripening periods vary depending on the season: in winter, a longer period of 58–70 days is required for the formation of the crop, in spring – only 30–40 days. Large, rounded leaves, narrow at the base, expanding at the top. They have a very delicate taste;
- TSKHA 2 is a mid-season variety. The plant is up to 45 cm high with large, elongated leaves, wavy at the edges. The leaves are collected in a rosette, forming a loose head of cabbage, white-yellow in section, weighing about 800 g;
- Lenok is an early ripening variety for salads, forms a rather dense rosette of leaves weighing up to 0,3 kg. The ripening period of the crop is only 39 days. The variety is stress-resistant, easily tolerates a lack of light, is practically not susceptible to disease.
Planting Chinese cabbage at home
The result of growing Peking cabbage depends on the quality of the soil, the correct sowing of seeds, compliance with the required temperature regime and further care.
Soil preparation
The culture prefers to grow on loose, fertile soil with neutral acidity. The best substrate for it will be a mixture of fertile soil, humus and sand in a ratio of 1: 2: 1. If the land is taken from the garden, it must first be disinfected with a solution of manganese or Fitosporin (1 drop / 1 l). At high acidity it is necessary to add ash (1 tablespoon / 1 l).
Soil mixture for Chinese cabbage seeds can be prepared by yourself from turf, humus and sand in a ratio of 1: 2: 1
You can mix in equal parts soil, vermicompost and coconut substrate. The soil provides plants with mineral nutrition, biohumus contains additional nutrients, and the coconut substrate loosens the soil and accumulates moisture.
Peking cabbage grows very well in ready-made bio-soil, which is sold in garden stores. It is made on the basis of low-lying peat with the addition of vermiculite and vermiculite. Contains all essential trace elements and accelerates plant growth. Such soil does not require additional disinfection.
Bio-soil is saturated with microelements and promotes intensive plant growth
Instead of a soil mixture, peat tablets are often used, which are compressed peat enriched with an antibacterial component, a growth stimulator and mineral fertilizers. The tablet has a shell that prevents it from scattering. Peat tablets, placed on a tray with water, swell and increase in height up to 8 cm. The seeds are laid out in a depression made in the center of the tablet.
Peat tablets contain nutritional supplements and are well suited for growing Chinese cabbage seedlings
When growing seedlings in peat tablets containing nutritional supplements, there is no need for additional fertilizers and preparations that accelerate growth.
Choosing a container for growing
One of the best options for sowing cabbage is 200 ml plastic cups. When grown in separate containers, there is no need to pick plants, during which delicate roots are often injured.
Plastic cups must have drainage holes for water drainage
Only as they grow, the seedlings are transplanted together with a lump of earth into larger pots with a volume of 1 liter and 3 liters. The cups should have drainage holes so that excess water does not accumulate. You can also use improvised material: cut plastic bottles, yogurt jars, milk cartons.
The grown cabbage from the glass is transplanted into a large container
It is also convenient to grow cabbage in cassettes, filling each cell with soil and sowing seeds in it. Such cassettes already have drainage holes and it is easy to remove plants from them for transplanting into a larger container.
As a container, ordinary seedling boxes are also suitable, which are placed on a pallet. More seedlings can be grown in boxes, but they must be dived. For Chinese cabbage, this process is quite painful, as it often leads to damage to the root system. The roots of Peking cabbage are thin and fragile, break easily, which leads to a growth retardation of seedlings.
More seedlings can be grown in seedling boxes, but then they will need to be dived
Seed sowing
Peking cabbage seeds are not soaked before sowing. They are sown into moist soil in rows to a depth of 5–10 mm with an interval of 4 cm, leaving 10 cm between rows. Sprinkle with soil, water and cover with foil. They are placed in a warm place (20-22 ° C), monitoring the soil moisture and opening the greenhouse daily to ventilate and remove condensation.
On the third day, seedlings appear. The film is removed and the seedlings are placed for 5 days in a cooler room with a temperature of + 10–12 ° C during the day and + 6–8 ° C at night. In the future, the optimal temperature regime for cabbage is provided: + 18–20 ° С in the daytime and + 14–18 ° С at night.
Peking cabbage seeds are not soaked before sowing.
This culture is hard to tolerate picking, so it is preferable to sow seeds not in a common container, but 3 seeds in each cell. The survival rate after picking is no more than 70%.
You can immediately sow seeds in separate pots. One seed is planted in a container with a volume of 1 liter, 3 seeds in the shape of a triangle are placed in a three-liter pot. When the upper layer of the substrate dries up, irrigate with warm, settled water, then carefully loosen the moist soil, providing air access to the roots.
Peking cabbage seeds are buried in the soil by 1 cm
When the grown seedlings develop 2-3 true leaves, only one plant is left in the pot. Weak seedlings are not pulled out of the soil so as not to accidentally touch the roots of the remaining plant, but pinch off.
Video: sowing Chinese cabbage for seedlings
Peking cabbage pick
If the seedlings were grown in a common box, with the appearance of 2 true leaves, they are dived into separate pots. Previously, the soil is well moistened and with the help of a spatula, the plants are removed from the glass along with an earthen lump. At the same time, the plant is held by the stalk. Seedlings are transplanted in larger containers filled with a nutrient mixture. Sprinkle with soil until the cotyledon leaves, compact and watered. At first, the transplanted seedlings are shaded from the sun’s rays.
After the growth of two true leaves, the seedlings of Peking cabbage dive, transplanting them into separate cups
You can transplant seedlings into one large box, but at least 30 cm must be left between them, so that, as they grow, they do not interfere with each other.
Video: We dive seedlings of Chinese cabbage from a snail into glasses
Features of care
Like any crop, Chinese cabbage needs good care. The moisture and nutrition regime is responsible for the harvest.
Watering
For active development of plants, it is necessary to create soil moisture of 80–85% and air moisture – 75%. For this, abundant, but infrequent watering is carried out, and then the room must be ventilated.
For all its love of moisture, Peking cabbage does not tolerate stagnant water, so watering should be abundant, but infrequent.
Cabbage loves moisture, but does not tolerate stagnant water, therefore, watering is carried out only after the top layer of the soil has dried. It is very important to constantly monitor soil moisture on a regular basis, since with a lack of moisture, the crop is poorly formed, and its excess often leads to the development of root rot.
Temperature conditions
Peking cabbage is a cold-resistant plant, for seed germination a small plus temperature of +4 ° C is enough, but intensive growth and development occurs only at a temperature of + 15–22 ° C. At higher temperatures, cabbage turns into color, especially in conditions of long daylight hours. It is also undesirable to keep the seedlings in a cool room with a temperature of less than 10–12 ° C for a long time. A decrease in temperature even for 5 days leads to the formation of premature arrows.
At air temperatures above 22 ° C, Chinese cabbage may turn into color
Feeding
Peking cabbage needs to be fed during the growing season. Fertilizers are applied by watering or spraying. It is advisable not to use minerals – cabbage accumulates nitrates very quickly. To accelerate the regrowth of leaves, it is recommended to use liquid vermicompost every 2 weeks. It is useful to sprinkle Peking cabbage with a solution of boric acid (dissolve 2 g in 1 liter of boiling water and add 9 liters of cold water).
During the growing season, Peking cabbage should be fed with liquid vermicompost every 2 weeks.
If there are no organic fertilizers, when the fifth true leaf appears, top dressing is carried out with a 1% solution of urea and potassium sulfate, after 10 days – again. After fertilization, the soil is well watered from a sprinkler so that the mineral composition does not get on the plants.
Treatment against pests and diseases
The main pests of cabbage are aphids and cruciferous flea beetles. In the fight against them, it is better to use herbal remedies: decoctions of chamomile, wormwood. Spraying with ash infusion (300 g / 10 l) will help get rid of insects. The ash solution will not only help to cope with pests, but also saturate the cabbage with potassium, which is so necessary for it in the formation of the crop. In the event of a mass invasion of pests, chemical agents with a gentle effect on the environment can be used: Fury (1 ml / 10 L), Bankol (0,7 g / 1 L).
To combat cruciferous flea, you can spray cabbage with ash infusion (300 g / 10 l of water)
Excessive soil moisture and sudden changes in temperature, thickened planting of plants can cause the appearance of a black leg in seedlings. To get rid of the disease, you can water the cabbage with a 0,5% solution of potassium permanganate.
With improper watering and sudden changes in temperature, cabbage sprouts are often affected by a black leg
Excessive watering can provoke the development of a fungal infection – downy mildew. Stagnation of water in the soil and high air temperature contribute to the activation of the fungus – the causative agent of the disease. First, yellow or brown spots appear on the upper side of the leaf, then a grayish coating begins to quickly spread from the lower side. Therefore, at the first manifestations of the disease, cabbage should be treated with the biofungicide Fitosporin (3 g / 5 l).
Growing Chinese cabbage on a windowsill is not so difficult. Of course, you won’t be able to get a big harvest in an apartment. But by surrounding the plants with care and creating comfortable conditions for them to grow actively, you can provide yourself and your family with vitamin greens in the winter.
