Brassica oleracea var. sabauda
Savoy cabbage
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 50 cm, rows 50 cm
- Lifespan
- Biennial
- Sowing
- Mar–Jun
- Harvest
- Aug–Dec
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −10 °C
- Water need
- High
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
Savoy cabbage is distinguished by its rosette, leaf-like rounded leaves and is milder and more delicate than white or red cabbage. Late varieties tolerate substantial frost and taste especially fine after the first cold nights; it is one of the most reliable winter vegetables.
Care instructions
Sow in a staggered manner from March to June in the soil, and plant the seedlings with a spacing of one arm's length into the humus-rich bed. Keep the soil evenly moist, protect the young plants with a net from cabbage whitefly, and harvest from August as needed; late varieties can be left standing until December.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMar–Jun
HarvestAug–Dec
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 5 °C, ideally 20 °C
- Days to sprout
- 4 to 10 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 1 cm
- How to start
- Start indoors, then plant out
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, moist, nutrient-rich
Savoy cabbage likes deep, loamy, humus-rich soils that stay evenly moist but don't become waterlogged. It loves lime: keep the pH as close as possible to 6.5 to 7.5, because below about 6.5 head formation suffers and the risk of clubroot rises markedly. Improve sandy soils generously with ripe compost and a little lime before planting.
Brassicas are heavy feeders and susceptible to clubroot. Keep to a 4-year break from growing them, and don't follow directly after other brassicas such as radishes or mustard.
Feeding
Heavy feeder
Months
Mar–Jul
In spring, a few weeks before planting, work ripe compost and horn shavings shallowly into the bed. As soon as the heads form from summer, you can top up with nettle or comfrey liquid feed. Stop feeding a few weeks before harvest, otherwise flavour and keeping quality suffer.
Overwintering
Late winter varieties you simply leave standing in the bed and harvest fresh bit by bit into spring. They usually tolerate frost easily. In long-lasting, severe cold, cover the root and head area with dry leaves and brushwood; harvest early varieties before the first hard frosts instead.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate savoy cabbage only by sowing. Vegetative methods are not usual for this cabbage. Depending on the type of variety, choose the right time window:
Early varieties (harvest from July): From February, sow on the windowsill or in the greenhouse in low-nutrient seed compost, about 1 cm deep. At around 18 °C the seeds germinate within a week; at cooler temperatures it is a little slower. As soon as the seedlings are sturdy and show their first true leaves, prick out the strongest plants into individual pots. From April, plant them outdoors at a spacing of about 40 × 40 cm; a cover of horticultural fleece protects against late night frosts.
Mid-season varieties (harvest August to November): Start from April in a cold frame or on the windowsill, plant out from May to July.
Late varieties and winter savoy (harvest October to April): Sow directly in the bed from July to mid-August at the latest, sowing depth 1 cm, germination temperature about 18 °C. Row spacing 50 to 60 cm, later thin to 40 to 50 cm. A vegetable net protects against cabbage root fly and caterpillars straight after planting out.
Before moving young plants outdoors, harden them off by putting them outside during the day for a few days. Keep to the crop rotation: like all cabbages, savoy cabbage should return to the same site after 4 years at the earliest. Note: with F1 varieties, saving your own seed is not worthwhile, as the offspring do not come true to type; open-pollinated varieties, on the other hand, you can raise yourself.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
legume family (Fabaceae)
particularly well establishedLeguminous plants collect nitrogen in the soil, from which Brassicaceae benefit as heavy feeders.
For example Bush beanPole beanBroad beanSnow peaWrinkled peaRunner bean and 35 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
carrot family (Apiaceae)
You can pair celery and dill with all Brassicaceae because they repel the cabbage whitefly with their scent, a proven companion.
For example CarrotCeleriacDillParsleyFlorence fennelCoriander and 21 more species in the catalogue
Source: Bio-Gärtnerei Mixed-culture Practice
mint family (Lamiaceae)
You will notice that the intense scent of basil, thyme, and others confuses the cabbage whitefly and keeps it away from the cabbage family.
For example LavenderThymeBasilRosemarySageHyssop and 43 more species in the catalogue
Source: bio-gardening intercropping practice
nasturtium family (Tropaeolaceae)
Nasturtium serves as a trap plant for you. Aphids and cabbage whiteflies prefer it over the brassicaceae next to it.
For example NasturtiumMashua
Source: Trap plant practice in organic horticulture
Rather not
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
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Grow Savoy cabbage yourself
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Varieties
4 varieties‘Marner Grüfewi’
An open-pollinated summer savoy cabbage for an early harvest from midsummer, when other savoy varieties still need a long time.
‘Ormskirk’
A very hardy, open-pollinated savoy cabbage of the old English school that you can leave standing through the winter into early spring.
‘Vertus’
A proven, open pollinated autumn and winter savoy cabbage from France that you harvest from October right into the frosts.
‘Wirosa F1’
A modern, very hardy F1 savoy cabbage that secures your harvest deep into winter.
Notes from real gardens
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From the magazine
Storing cabbage: keeping white, red and savoy cabbage through winter
Firm storage varieties last until spring if you harvest and store them right. When white and red cabbage go into storage, why savoy stays in the bed, why pointed cabbage has no business in the cellar, and how the surplus becomes sauerkraut.
Harvesting Winter Vegetables: Fresh from the Frost
Kale, Brussels sprouts, corn salad and parsnip stand in the bed all winter and taste even sweeter after frost. Here is how to harvest fresh from the snow without the leaves turning to mush.
December: The Garden Sleeps, the Plan for the New Year Grows
In December the garden rests under frost and snow. You harvest the kale for the holidays, shake the snow off the branches, feed the birds, and over a cup of tea let next year's garden start taking shape in your head.