Cabbage question

[peanut]

I'm growing the Cabbage, Green Valley f1.

I've never grown Cabbages before, can you tell me....
Does each plant produce 1 Cabbage?
Are they on a single stalk tall or short?

Thanks all

[Flummery]

Yep, you are quite right, 1 plant = one short stalk = one cabbage. Sprouts are the ones that grow lots on a long stalk, as do sprouting broccoli. You'll soon get used to it!

[Cutecumber]

Each cabbage plant produces one cabbage head. They are short plants - not more than a foot high. They start off looking quite spindly with widely space leaves but gradually the stem thickens and you will begin to see a more dense central area develop.

[JennieAtkinson]

As CC says, given them plenty of space. When you plant them out they look a bit lost but they need alot of space to grow. So it is really worthwhile following the planting distances on the packet.

[peanut]

Thanks for that folks.

[Snadger]

If you want multiple cabbages from one plant cut a cross in the cabbage stem top once you have harvested the cabbage. You should get at least four sprouting from the cut area!

[Nicos]

Ohh- you beat me to that Snadge!!

[peanut]

Oh wow! thanks for that superb tip!

[Demeter]

Great tip, will see if I can remember to try it at harvest time!

Got me thinking about planting distances though. Our cabbages are planted far too close together - my allotment mate is convinced they will all get scoffed by slugs. Assuming that "too many survive" then once they've grown on a bit presumably we can just thin them then? Can one transplant them and shift them around if necessary - to even out the spacing if the slugs don't scoff evenly, and we end up with loads in one place and a big gap somewhere else? Finally, if we do thin them out after they've grown on a bit, can we eat any immature cabbages that we take out?

Ta