iGrowVeg

Spring Cabbages have Bolted!

Posted on 18. Apr, 2009 by Tracey in My Veg Plot

Just when you think everything is going swimmingly and you’ve been waiting all winter for some tasty spring cabbage leaves, this happens!

Bolting
Bolting is where the plant puts on a sudden spurt of growth too quickly and uses up all its energy, then flowers and seeds. It will stop growing as it has completed its life cycle.

Why does bolting occur?
Flowering plants like cabbage, lettuce or spinach have a photoreceptor protein which is sensitive to seasonal changes or hours of darkness. These long day plants require fewer number of hours darkness within a day to set flower. A cold spell of weather can also assist with bolting.

Solution
According to the RHS, they recommend to sow your spring cabbages at the end of July to prevent your cabbages from bolting early (they will bolt later instead) or sow a bolt resistant variety like Hispi F1, Advantage F1 or Pixie.

I have picked off the leaves of the cabbage plants for the kitchen and thrown the rest of the plant in the compost bin.

One of my plots will be empty for a while until the next lot of cabbages (Minicole F1) grow, so I will be sowing a ‘catch crop’ (a fast growing crop grown in between other slower growing crops) of radishes, small chanteny carrots and leaf beat, so the area doesn’t go to waste. As we do eat a lot of potatoes, I have decided to plant the maincrop potatoes in half of this plot instead of in pots.