First Red Cabbage - 7kg!

I picked the first of our red cabbages today. It weighed in at 7kg and was the size of a football.
I'm really quite chuffed as this is the second year I've managed to grow decent brassicas despite having club root in the soil.

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That is one lump of a cabbage Dave, well done you. If you are growing cabbages like that, then I would say you do NOT have club root.:gnthb:

 

Thanks Dai!
I do have club root in the soil for sure but I've found a way to avoid or at least mitigate the effects.

 

I`m not contradicting you Dave, but what are the symptoms?

 

The roots don't develop properly Dai. Instead of long fibrous roots developing the root swells just below the surface at the base of the plant and further swellings develop on side roots. This has a seriously detrimental effect on uptake of nutrients (and on stability) and plants don't develop properly. Three years ago all I got
from a row of sprouts was a couple of dozen small buttons at Christmas and all my cabbages ended up not much larger than tennis balls.
It's a virus that remains in the soil for 8 years or so. Conventional wisdom is to give up on brassicas for 8 years if you've club root in the soil.
I found a 'cure' or more accurately a 'work-around' on the www. This involves growing on the seedlings in pots for as long as possible and then planting in 6x9 inch holes filled with fresh potting compost and then watering in with a lime solution. At the worst this delays the onset of CR and at best avoids it completely.
Last year I'd a bumper crop of sprouts with no sign of CR when I dug up the plants in spring.
BUT! the half dozen 'spare' cabbage and sprouts I planted out without the above mentioned precautions all developed CR and ended up being consigned to the re-cycle bin.

 

Congratulations on a whopper Dave, but what do you do with a stone of cabbage.

 

We just this afternoon distributed 2/3rds of it to friends Alice :D
Our third will last a week or more!

 

Dave, your plants aren`t suffering from Club Root. They are suffering from Turnip Gall Weevil.:gnthb::gnthb:

 

Totally controllable.:thumb:

 

SMASHING :gnthb::gnthb::gnthb:

Well done sargent.

If I get set up properly next year, I'll have a go at red babbage again.

 

Dave...thats great for starters...whats next ?
Seriously.. I would also be proud of a cabbage like that. Well done you.

 

Wow !!