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Why are my red cabbages tall and leggy?

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  • #1

    Why are my red cabbages tall and leggy?

    This isn't the first time I have grown red cabbages in my polytunnel at this time of year so can't understand what has gone wrong this year.

    I bought the plants in our local market back in late February or March and planted them at a good spacing in the polytunnel as usual. But instead of growing into proper 'cabbage' plants and starting to heart, they have grown extremely tall, around 2 feet tall, and leggy. I can't imagine they will form more than a tiny head in consequence.

    It looks like it might be a lack of light but it's the same polytunnel as I have used successfully for a number of years, and we have had plenty of bright sunny days earlier in the spring.

    I am left wondering if it is a problem with the variety or some kind of physiological problem. The only different thing to normal year is that I heavily mulched the ground with wood chips, but these have not been dug in of course.

    Anybody with similar problems? Advice?
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  • #2
    Is it possible that they are not Cabbages but maybe PSB or Sprouts...........just guessing really.
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    • #3
      I was thinking the same as BM. The only other thing I can think of is that we have had the sunniest April on record, and maybe they have got too hot in the polytunnel and are bolting.
      A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP. - Leonard Nimoy

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      • #4
        I was wondering if they were the same variety as you've grown before. I find that by now it's too hot in the tunnel for brassias, I overwinter some in there but they've all been eaten by now and with the hot weather a few weeks ago it could easily have sent them over the edge. Hadn't thought about them being a different brassica though, that could be an option.

        Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

        Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

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        • #5
          The variety could be the problem, now you mention it. I always got the plants before from an excellent market trader in veggie plants, but he has retired and these are new people. Looking at the plants, I began to wonder if they were some kind of cross, and that the seed had been collected in poor conditions.

          But we DID have extremely hot conditions in late March/early April, so it is also perfectly possible that they are just bolting. I will see what they do and harvest them as flowering shoots if necessary but I will need to replace them very soon now with the toms, aubergines and peppers anyway.

          I'll try to post a photo of the red cabbages later. But thanks for all the advice.

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