How to prepare cabbage for transplanting

Nitrogen and irrigation play a crucial role in successful transplanting and help to ensure healthy plants in the longer term 

- Bill Kerr

Basic, first-stage fertilisation of cabbages should be carried out according to the nutrients that are already in the soil, as well as the general condition of the soil. This includes its organic content, which plays a major role in soil health.

This means that you need to fertilise the crop according to the results of a soil analysis. Ultimately, this is the most cost-effective approach: cabbages are an expensive crop to produce and the cost of a soil analysis is negligible compared with the input costs or the consequences of getting fertilisation wrong.

Having addressed the pre-planting fertilisation, your next step is to apply LAN to the seedlings prior to planting. The seedling grower is likely to have withheld nitrogen in the last phase of growing the seedlings. This practice hardens them and prevents them from becoming too large if delivery of the order is delayed for some reason.