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We Have A Winner

Posted on October 14, 2009 at 10:59 PM

I decided to try something new in the fall garden this year.   Territorial Seed came out with a new offering of a loose-leaf cabbage called Beira Tronchuda and it looked so interesting that I decided to dive right in and give it a try.   Started the seeds on June 13th along with several other fall crops and on July 11th I transplanted them all out into the bed that had previously held the pea patch.    

           

    

    

These plants were all obviously quite happy in this bed because two weeks later (July 25th) they looked like this.                                        

     

    

 

It is my experience that just about any crop will be wildly happy if it is planted as a follow up to the pea patch.   All legumes improve soil by nitrogen fixing, but peas in particular seem to leave the soil in a really excellent condition.   

  

Now, well into the fall season, the Beira Tronchuda cabbages look like this. 

 

 

These plants have big beautiful leaves that definitely are cabbage like in shape and firmness, but the color and the texture feels more like kale to me.   Tonight I made the first harvest from this planting.   I cut over ¾ of a pound of leaves off of 2 plants.   After a leaf was cut, I just pulled the stem off and later  composted all of them.   These plants have a central growing point that keeps producing new leaves so long as you just cut away the older lower leaves and leave the center alone - very similar to swiss chard's growth habit.                                                

                                     

The harvest was immediately taken inside and used in an Asian chicken/veggie/noodle stir-fry dish for the evening meal (you can see my recipe on the calendar entry for today).   Wow! This was excellent eating.    

   

The combination of fast growth, good productivity, and excellent eating qualities makes this new item a winner.

 

Categories: Fall/Winter Gardening, Vegetables, Soil

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10 Comments

Reply Dan
01:27 AM on October 15, 2009 
Wow, they look excellent and have done very well! Would they be good for cabbage rolls?
Reply Daphne
12:59 PM on October 15, 2009 
They sound good. How far apart are they planted?
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
10:26 PM on October 15, 2009 
Dan - I believe they would make a superior cabbage roll. I will have to do that sometime in the coming months and test that idea out proper.

Daphne - I planted them out using a 1 foot square per plant spacing - 3 rows of 4. I lost one or two plants shortly after the initial transplanting so there is no longer 12 plants (I think there is 10 of them now).
Reply Matron
03:09 AM on October 17, 2009 
How come you don't have any critter holes in your cabbage? I find it impossible to grow brassicas even with the best security!
Reply Becky
06:42 AM on October 17, 2009 
What beautiful cabbage! It is certainly happy growing there. I didn't know that about plants growing well where peas had been formerly. I'll have to keep that in mind for my garden rotation next year.
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
10:23 AM on October 17, 2009 
Matron - I use Bt spray during the summer season to organically control cabbage worms. I don't bother with it during the early spring or fall because the moths are not about laying their eggs. Bt is a good organic solution ot cabbage worms and is a necessity (or covering with a light reemay cover) to grow brassicas without severe worm damage. My other big pest on all things green is the reknowned pacific northwest slug. I did a whole post on how I organically manage to keep their numbers to some level of reasonableness. You can find that post at this url address -

http://www.modernvictorygarden.com/apps/blog/show/999290-slug-man
agement

Becky - Peas are a great crop to improve soil. Pea vine is also a great addition ot the compost pile too. It's similar to alfalfa (which is also a legume as well) in the amount of protein/nitrogen - both make excellent animal hay and are also particularly good at improving the soil as an amendment and nitrogen fixing crop. Peas are particularly nice because they do all these things AND produce yummy sweet garden peas to eat!
Reply Jim Giddings
10:25 AM on October 17, 2009 
Soil prepping during the fall...of course. Once it dries out from a wet weekend (?) I plan on ammending with a few bags of compost, a few heaving shovel fulls of my own blend, some lime, some bone meal, et al.

Since the corn was a poor performer - by my own seed choice, or by poor soil - I plan on really enriching that bed.

I might as well start some lettuce seeds now, Id like to have a small crop over this winter.
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
10:01 PM on October 17, 2009 
Jim - Your garden will thank you next spring for your care bestowed upon it this fall.
Reply Sustainable Eats
12:50 AM on November 03, 2009 
I planted some of these and was wating for the heads to form - so glad I read this! I can't wait to try them out now. :P
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
09:25 AM on November 03, 2009 
Sustainable Eats - You would have been waiting a long time! These are really good eating - enjoy!