MICRO-FARMING SPECIFICATIONS*

INTENSIVE SPACING

• 2 rows per bed spaced every 45cm on the row

FERTILISATION

• Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflowers are all heavy feeders that require lots of compost, +/- 5cm all across the bed. In rich soils, compost can be replaced with a buried cover crop of leguminous nature, but in both cases, we add nitrogen- rich organic fertilizers like pelleted chicken manure (5-3-2) to help the plant quickly develops its canopy.
• A second boost of nitrogen is added to the crop +/- 14 days after the transplant by amending the soil with blood or alfalfa meal (or equivalent).

IRRIGATION
Irrigation Type

• Drip tape or Techline (4 per bed) or sprinkler Irrigation Management
• Root depth: Shallow 15-60cm
• Critical period: Head development
• General: Needs even moisture or heads might crack.

IMPLANTATION

We plan different successions of cabbages in the spring and later in the summer for autumn crops, avoiding plantings in the heat of the summer. We plant cabbages with other heavy feeding crucifers like, broccoli, cauliflowers and kohlrabi, all crops which spend +/- 60 days in the field.

EQUIPMENT

• Rotary harrow. Option 1; R2 power harrow. Option 2; Tilther.
• Broadfork. Option 1; 6 tyne Broadfork with hardwood handles. Option 2; 5 tyne, 7 tyne, metal handled extra heavy duty.
• Row markers. Option1; Neversink Gridder, Option 2; 75cm bed prep rake + marking tubes
• Declumping tray
• Anti-insect net and hoops. Net option 1; Woven insect net. Net option 2; Horticultural fleece.

ITINERARY

• Remove silage tarp and-or clean large debris. Use the rake if needed. *
• Uniformly apply compost and amendments and pass with the rotary harrow at a depth of 5cm. To make transplanting easier (seeing as the soil is loose after being harrowed), we only prepare the beds when we are about to transplant.
• Using the bed prep rake and 2 tubes, mark the rows both lengthways and sideways. Bring the well-watered trays.
• Using the declumping tray to facilitate clump extraction, 1 person will drop the seedling while 2 others transplant the plants as fast as possible. 3 people/30m bed is a good ratio for efficient workflow.
• Bury the seedling all the way to where the leaves start to branch out.
• Install the hoops every 1.5 metres and cover the crops with the anti-insect net. Set sandbags on every hoop.
• Install irrigation and water the soil until it is deeply moist.

* If the previous crop is too well established, or if the bed is too messy, mow the crop as low as possible and harrow at a depth of 5cm. Add 2.5cm of compost evenly spread on the whole wilih of the bed and transplant into compost following a no-till strategy.

WEEDING

• 14 days after the transplant, the crops are cultivated using a stirrup hoe and amended bed with blood or alfalfa meal. Hoeing will take care of the weeds, break the crust and mix your amendments in the soil.
• Cover the beds with a +/-10cm of straw mulch 10cm. This will keep the soil cooler, which is beneficial for the crop.

PLANT PROTECTION

• Immediately after transplanting, install anti-insect net on the crop. Place sandbags every 1.5 metres to make sure the nets are sealed down.
• After transplant, seedlings are sometimes being attacked by white or gray worms in which case, they’ll need to be replaced. For this reason, keep leftovers seedlings another week in the nursery after the transplant.
• Slugs can also be an issue. But, unless there’s a major infestation, we don?t worry about them.
• To protect the crop against the cabbage moth, systematically spray BT+/- 25 days and another 10 days later. When spraying for BT, add boron and seaweed (or compost tea) together and apply foliarly. This is better done early morning so to let the leaf absorb the foliar application. Avoid spraying during or before a rain, as it will diminish the effect of the application.
• If sweet midge is a problem of if flea beetles are very problematic, crops should be covered with insect netting all the to harvest.

HARVEST

• Cabbage is harvested standing upright using a field and tree planting bags. Push down the side leaves using both hands and cut the cabbage at its very bottom.
• Do not overfill the harvest containers so to be able to stack them.

CONDITIONING

• Cabbages are not washed and simply put storage bins. Do not overfill bins, so not to bruise the top cabbages.

STORING

• Cabbage heads are stored in cold room kept at 2C and can be stored many months.

*The following modified excerpt from ‘The Market Gardener’s Masterclass” technical sheets (JM Fortier 2018) is a reference to cabbage but closely applies to caulies, broccolis and kohlrabbi. This reference material is intended to support the development of bio-intensive small mixed production for profit.