How to grow an Award-Winning cabbage from seed!
Updated: 19 hours ago
Last update: Sunday, March 19th, 2023: This post will follow how I start a cabbage from seed and nurture it to grow up to be an award-winning (1st Place at the Champaign County Fair in 2021 and 2022) cabbage. I will post 1-2 videos per week and detail every thing I did to grow this cabbage, transplant it outside in the Spring, and nurture it to full-size. Then harvest the cabbage just in time to enter in the Champaign County Fair sometime in mid-July. So here's what to do:
Prepare seedling growth area. I use a bay window on the west side of the house, so it gets great morning light and then I have grow lights.
(2/19/23) Place 3-5 cabbage seeds in each pellet (that has opened up after watering) and water completely. I push them down a bit and try to move the pellet dirt over the seeds.
Keep out of direct sunlight until the seeds germinate. This could take 1-3 weeks. Water every few days.
(3/1/23) In the video below, one of the pellets sprouted 2 seeds at first, and then a 3rd popped up. As soon as they sprouted, I got them under a grow light for 8-12 hours/day. The video records their progress up through 3/12/23. To this date, I just watered every few days and kept them close under the grow light.
Update: Sunday, March 19th, 2023: The seedlings are quite tall and looking strong!
Update: Sunday, March 12th, 2023: This is the full video so far. It's only 3 mins. But from here on out, I will just post video updates -- not the full video. I will also detail my care for these seedlings as much as I possibly can so that we can all learn together! Note that at :35 I show my favorites, and there are indeed 3 cabbage seedlings. The 3rd appeared shortly after the first video was taken of the original two strongest cabbage seedlings. Cool! All 3 are thriving today!
The full list of steps below. Cabbage seeds planted 2/19/23, two sprouted in 10 days:
3/12/23:
3/19/23 -- one month old. And surprise -- there's a 4th!
To this: My 1st Place cabbage at the Champaign County Fair, July 22nd, 2022!
Prepare seedling growth area. I use a bay window on the west side of the house, so it gets great morning light and then I have grow lights.
2/19/23: Place 3-5 cabbage seeds in each pellet (that has opened up after watering) and water completely. I push them down a bit and try to move the pellet dirt over the seeds.
Keep out of direct sunlight until the seeds germinate. This could take 1-3 weeks. Water every few days. These seeds germinated in 10 days.
3/1/23: In the video above, one of the pellets sprouted 2 seeds at first, and then a 3rd popped up. When they are one-inch tall, get them under a grow light for 8-12 hours/day. The video records their progress up through 3/12/23. To this date, I just watered every few days and kept them close under the grow light.
3/19/23: Finally lifted the grow light, since the plants outgrew the last level, and a 4th seedling sprouted this week in the pot with the strongest seedlings. Watered all thoroughly, and made sure they are right up against the grow light at it's new height. We now have 8 cabbage seedlings vying for transplantation, the tallest one pictured above still the favorite to win the blue ribbon. The tallest and strongest -- Zeus.