All year round Cabbages and Marrowfat peas

I live in Sussex and Iâ??d like to grow cabbages next year so that I have one cabbage ready to be eaten every weekend during the year. Which would be the best varieties to do this?

I, normally, grow Greyhound, Tundra, and Primo, which do very well but can anyone suggest varieties that would give me cabbages all year round?

A second question - I love marrowfat peas. Last year I grew a variety of pea called Twinkle, which tasted very much like them but didnâ??t say they were. Are marrowfat peas a different type of pea or just ordinary peas left to mature longer in the ground?

TIA

 

If you want to eat cabbage over the autumn and winter try one of the red cabbage varieties. Most are very frost hardy.

 

Duncan sounds as though it would be a good one to add to your list as it can be sown at different times of year.
The best thing you can do is get a copy of a decent catalogue. I have just received Tuckers catalogue ( they are very quick at responding to a request) and they include tables of maturity, when to sow, transplant etc. A study of such a table should enable you to plan your cabbage.
My aim is also to provide veg for as long as possible. With cabbage you should be able to provide cabbage for every week of the year. I will also include Savoys in my plan. My Ormskirk Rearguards are just coming on stream.
I am also aiming next year to get Brussels, leeks and lettuce for as long as possible...oh and potatoes using my new polytunnel.

 

Thanks Dave W,.

Unfortunately, I only like red cabbage pickled - I'm not a lover of it cooked as a vegetable!

 

Hi Geoff! Thanks for your reply. You're doing exactly what I am trying to do - with your leeks, etc. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had retired for about five years that I really became interested in gardening and got an allotment - so there are a lot of holes (actually, more like craters!) in my knowledge - hence my questions!

I did have an Edwin Tucker catalogue sent to me last year, by a friend, but I never, even, opened it (because I buy my seeds from the allotment shop and they sell only Kings Seeds) - I'll make sure, however, I get one this year - in fact I'll go to their site next and order one - thanks for the advice.

I have thought about a polytunnel, in the past, but dismissed it on cost - I'll have another thought, though!

Thanks very much, again!

 

Hi again Geoff,

This is just a bit of boasting (I get so little opportunity to do that!) but I had a look at the Edwin Tucker sowing chart and it's almost identical to the one that I produce, on my computer, each year. The differences are that their information is general while I, obviously, can and do change it according to what the crop is that I intend to sow or plant. I, also, have colours for sowing under cover in pots, etc., sowing direct outside, and transplanting the seedlings. I, also, have a column for germnation times and distances apart. This I print off and take up to my allotment.

Clever? Not really just a vey bad memory! Please forgive the boasting but the last time I was able to do so was during the world war - the first one! Only joking - I'm not quite that old!

Oh, I've ordered my catalogue from Tucker's - thanks for the info.

Cheers!

 

Well if you are not up to a polytunnel just yet think about a proper long tunnel cloche. i have used them for overwintering lettuce, spring onion and October sown carrot.
I could not find any but someone on here suggested Plastics by Post. I have only just retired early.

 

Hmmm an interesting challenge - I hope you will share your sowing plan when you get it all worked out.
I managed to get all year round leeks one year with Jan sown (under glass ) just following on after the last of previous years. Also manage salad leaves of some kind every week of the year.
I like the idea of using the plot all year round - sad to see so many plots empty this time of the year through til April

 

That's - if I get it worked out! I've supplemented the cabbage with perpetual spinach and kale (green and red) in previos years but would like the opportunity to pull up a cabbage when i want.

In the past (because, I suppose, I live in the south) I've grown Primo and Greyhound and been able to harvest them from around June to mid-October. I've also grown Tundra and harvested these from December to March but I'm sure I can do better, even if I just use these plants. But as I've only really ever grown these, I wondered what other cabbages might offer more.

I haven't quite got myself organised, as regards Tundra, because, I believe, I should be able to harvest these from October to early May.

That's virtually the whole of the year. The trouble is, you look in the cataloques, and get confused because of the many varieties for sale - and no two packets of the same seeds evey seem to give the same growing and harvesting details!

 

I searched for long tunnel cloches but everything I found, though long enough, was generally not as high or wide as I would like. And the prices put me off ! I'm looking at a way of designing my own. I have raised beds, so I've ecen thought of building a light, simple, wooden structure (4ft wide x 3 ft high) and covering with thick plastic sheeting. I might do it, one day, but it's work I don't need!

I try not to use fleece any more as it seems that, even when new, if I so much as look at it, it tears. None of the stuff ever lasts from one year to the next. I now use a nylon sheet from Haxnicks - for keeping all sorts of flies and such away but it's not as good as plasticm for weather protectionm because rain can pass through it and any tunnel built with it, I wouldn't think would retain any warmth.

 

I remember Geoff Hamiltion built a rig for bending the wire hoops for the tunnel cloches - It was basically a piece of board with strategically placed nails round which wire was twisted . I suppose I could work it out by measuring one of my hoops.
I have two cloches from Plastics by Post - they are 25 feet long and I just buy replacement polythene every so often.
I grow Golden Acre/Primo and Hispi instead of Greyhound. You can get them earlier by starting under glass (windowsill). I then put transplant them under a tunnel cloche to reduce any shock and they are very early.

 

Hi JWK, thanks for your posting! I've grown mini-cole but can't remember why I stopped probably because I felt I was growing too many varieties. I've looked at January King but Tundra seems to cover a wider period, which is why I've always grown that. I have 8 kale plants (4 green and 4 red) in an area about 40 inches x 6 feet and the beauty of it at this time of the year is that it is cut & come again, basically.

I'll have a look at what you've suggested and see if they fit in better with what I want to do. Thanks again!

 

Hi Geoff,

I take it that you only use the wire hoops from the cloches to support the polythene - it isn't attached to the wires in any way? What size cloches did you buy? I do something similar with my fleece tunnels but use the hoops to support netting.

Thanks agaion Geoff for your help.