How to Grow Napa Cabbage from Seed to Harvest

I gotta tell you how to grow napa cabbage. Napa cabbage is one of my favorite greens and you've got to start it early. You can't wait until you're thinking about the garden until spring is sprung. You've got to start it in the winter. So let me tell you about the most beautiful, fantastic napa cabbage I've ever grown so that you can grow your own too. So it's to starting starts now. It starts in the early part of January. Even if your, your last frost date is a far, far way away. We all need to be starting napa cabbage seeds indoors right now. So you're going to plant napa cabbage seeds, one per cell, in a seed starting mix. And it needs to be under lights so you're not going to have the lights on at first. Keep the seed starting mix really nice and moist. You only want to have one seed per cell. If you can make it happen, you're going to wait until those sprout. They don't need a heating mat or anything. They like the cool weather. And as soon as those greens sprout, you're going to get your lights really nice and low over those greens. You need to thin them out early on. So if you had you accidentally dropped a couple of seeds, too many seeds in one cell. You know, I've never done that, but maybe you make mistakes. Just kidding. I make mistakes too every day. But you're just going to thin those out to one per cell. You want to get the lights really nice and low on top of those greens so that you don't end up with leggy seedlings. So leggy means where they're like, they're like all stretched out and very thin. We want nice thick cabbages. Okay. So you're going to get the lights really just a few inches above those greens and literally every single day you're going to see those greens get bigger and bigger and bigger. So once you get them to a place where they've got say four or five leaves, if you don't have a very big cell they're growing in, you might want to graduate them up to like a 4 inch pot inside before it's time to move them outside. So you're going to do that if you have to. I like to not have to transition twice. But if the leaves take off and it's not yet time, your soil is not yet workable to plant outside, then you might just have to do that. So you're going to up pot it to a four incher, keeping the light really close to the leaves. Don't burn them, of course, but, but pretty close. That's what, that's what's going to make these, these plants really nice, thick and bushy. Okay, so now we're nearing the time to move it outdoors. This is going to happen as your soil starts to, to loosen just a little bit, to, to raise in temperature. And if you're starting to see the snow melt, the frost is becoming less. For me in Chicago, this was right around February. For me in Nashville, this was actually like end of January. So when things are starting to warm up, you're going to start bringing those plants outdoors just during the day or hardening the cabbages off at this point. So you're going to bring them out. You don't want them in full sun and you don't want them, you know, like exposed to really cold weather. But if the temps are like in the 40s, that's ideal. So you got a little bit of sunshine and 40 degree temperature. Just bring them outside, let them sit out there for four or five hours. Be sure to bring them back in though. So you're going to do this for about a week or two as you're getting closer to your plant outdoor date. When do you plant it outdoors? For me, this worked best about 60 to 75 days before my last frost date. So in the Chicago area, I planted this out the very beginning of March. In Nashville, I can plant this out pretty much the very beginning of February into the, the end of the month. So as soon as the soil is workable, if the temps of the soil are around 40 to 50 degrees, you're good. So you're going to dig a little hole and you're going to give each napa cabbage a little bit less than 1 square foot. I like to grow mine in alternating rows. So I'll, you know, plant out one row and then I'll go in between the two cabbages and plant more on either side so you can really squeeze in a ton of napa cabbages. And these are, these are plants that are going to kind of come all at once as they start to be ready to harvest. So you don't have to plant a ton in order to enjoy. But if you're like me and you love a stir fry and you also love an Asian salad, I could really, you know, serve probably two to three napa cabbages a week during the time when these plants are thriving. So you're going to plant them out. The best part is they are frost tolerant, even frost resistant. And so it's not a huge deal. If you do have frost coming, you're going to have frost coming, obviously, because we're two and a half months ahead of the last frost date. You can put frost cloth over them, you can put plastic over them, you can put a cold frame over them. And even in Chicago, a lot of mine got frost on them. We even got some snow on top of them. When it all cleared, they were a little bit bitten, a little bit damaged, but not too bad. But you can definitely secure and make sure that they're going to make it through by just throwing a little bit of frost cloth over them. On the nights where the temps drop or, you know it's going to be extremely cold, through that cold weather, they are going to keep growing. You should see a few new leaves every few weeks coming up from the heart of this plant. Then as you get closer and closer to that last frost date, they're really going to take off. So in about probably 50 days before your last frost date, you should start to see a small head starting to form. You're going to have more leaves coming through the center, and those outside leaves are going to look probably a little bit more stressed. So that's when I start the process of clearing the plants, taking care of the plants each and every week. And I just do that simply by removing the outer and lower leaves, letting the interior of the plant continue to grow. So that's about 50 days before the last frost, move up to 40, 30, 35 days before the last frost, and now I start harvesting. So those outer leaves are generally looking really nice and good, and the inners, inner leaves are growing faster and faster. So each and every day, if I want to make a stir fry or start to make some sauerkraut or, or just have like a really fresh crisp to my salad, I'll go and cut the outer leaves of the Napa cabbage, letting the interior continue to grow on its own. So that's pressing all the way up until the last frost date. These cabbages are going to continue to grow, but they're really not yet at the place where I'm ready to cut them off and harvest them whole. But that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying their leaves and making loads of salads and dishes for from the harvest. Get close right up to the last frost date and then for the next 10, 15, 20, 25 days, this is your prime time. You are now officially the Napa cabbage lady. Okay, so you're going to be harvesting at least one of those heads probably once a week, depending on how many plants you put into the garden. But here's the thing. You don't want to miss this window, which I have done. So. So as soon as temps start to rise and we're past frost date, when the day temps start to go above 75, 80, 85, those Napa cabbages are going to tend to go to seed to start to bolt. And that's when the taste is going to change. The slugs and the bugs are going to appear, and it's just not fun. It's sad to see all your hard work go to waste. So you are now on the clock if you take on my napa cabbage challenge, then as soon as your last frost date pass, you literally need to put it on the calendar that you're going to cut and harvest and enjoy Napa cabbage every single week thereafter. At least one or two heads a week. And, and then you're just, you're just going to cut and, and eat and just enjoy your Napa cabbage heaven. Now the season comes to an end. As you get fully into the warm season, you'll cut those. You can cut them right at the base and then plant new warm season plants around them. And then here's the good news. If you loved your napa cabbage, then you don't get to do it just once in the year, you get to do it twice. So as you start to be in the middle of your warm or your hot season, when you're counting down to your first frost date, which will be coming then in the fall, you're going to bounce it back, you're going to count it back just like we do in the winter, and you're going to start napa cabbage seeds all over again. So this is going to be about 90 or so days before your first frost date. You're going to start napa cabbage seeds indoors and you're going to do the whole process over again. Except this time, instead of planting your Napa cabbage and fearing the frost, you're going to plant your napa cabbage and deal with the heat. So you're going to be hiding it under tall plants so that they don't bolt and so they make it through until the temperatures start to drop. When you're about 60, 50, 45 days before your first frost, the napa cabbage will make it through the first frost. And then you're going to start to harvest those cabbage heads over the next 20, 25, 30 days after your first frost, and boom, you just had two incredible seasons of Napa cabbage the best Napa cabbage you've ever had in your life. I haven't had a ton of luck and success with all the different kinds of cabbages. A lot of them never form a head or they form a head and then bolt and or they form it and I open it up and it's full of gross critters that I don't want to eat. But Napa cabbage is a winner for me. I've had so much success with it. I love it. It's fast growing and it's so, so delicious. From those outer leaves that make a quick salad all the way to the big head that can make all different kinds of dishes and the most delicious stir fries ever. So if you are looking for a way to up your game in the garden, to add something that's beautiful, that's long standing and that is so productive, then you gotta try my Napa cabbage plant. You gotta start the seeds right away because like I showed you, you need like 120 days to get this thing from seed to harvest. And so you gotta start now. All right, thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. We have got a full fantastic resource for you called the Gardenary Planting Calendar. You can grab it@gardenary.com podcast. All you got to do this calendar is put in two dates. As soon as you do that, I'm going to tell you all the other dates you need for planting, including the one for planting your cabbage. So if timing is something you want to be sure you get right this year in the garden, then you got to get the Gardenary Planting Calendar. Check it out@gardenary.com podcast thanks. Thank you so very much for listening and I cannot wait to see you and I especially can't wait to see the cabbages that you're going to grow this year. I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. You can keep listening anywhere. You love getting your podcast delivered on Apple podcasts on Spotify, iHeartRadio, you name it, we are there for you. And if you want to read the notes and get our our free resources to help you grow more, you can go to gardenary.com podcast.