Multiply cabbage harvest

[keat63]

I remember as a kid, when Dad had us harvest a cabbage we would cut the bulk of the cabbage, leaving a few leaves behind and the cut a cross in the remaining stalk.

This would give us extra cabbages for later in the season.

Having harvested our first cabbages this week, the thought came flooding back, it seemed instinctive for me to do this.

Does anyone else do this ?

[veggiechicken]

Most stumps will regrow if you leave the roots in situ. I do it with brassicas, leeks, spring onions, broad beans, lettuce.
Its a handy way to extend the cropping season.

[Small pumpkin]

I do it with lettuce. Not tried it with cabbage.

[keat63]

how do you do this with spring onions and leeks.
I take it you chop the leaf part off and replant this ?

Or do you chop the root off and replant that

[veggiechicken]

Leeks I usually dig them up, take off what I want and replant. Spring onions I chop off as much as I can and leave the rest to regrow - as you would with chives.

[Penellype]

Many plants such as brassicas and lettuce have a bud at the base of each leaf. As long as you leave some of these buds when you cut the main part it will regrow, if you cut it too close to the soil it won't.

Alliums are completely different and grow in a different way, so if you cut the top off the leaves they will keep growing from the base.

[Chippy Minton]

Many plants such as brassicas and lettuce have a bud at the base of each leaf. As long as you leave some of these buds when you cut the main part it will regrow, if you cut it too close to the soil it won't.

That'd be my problem then, I must cut too low as I then end up with a drying stump with a neat cross cut in it. Architectural yes, productive not so much

[Chestnut]

Has anyone tried this with cauliflower?

I hadn’t come across this trick before, but will definitely try it on my cabbage (yes, singular for the moment) when it’s ready to harvest

[Derbydal]

wished i'd known about doing it with broad beans ! atb Dal.

[Penellype]

The main purpose of a plant is to reproduce itself. That usually means producing seeds. If you cut off the seeds or seed producing material such as the head of a cabbage or lettuce, the plant will do its utmost to create more seeds. This is why if you cut off the central head of calabrese you get sideshoots forming, and also why you get more flowers if you pinch out the central tip of bedding plants. I have a 2nd crop growing from my Meteor peas - it is quite noticeable that the plants on which I have missed a pod and allowed it to ripen on the plant have died, whereas the ones that I have stripped of pods have produced fresh growth and more pods.

[self-contained]

I am going to try this with Henry. He is ready to harvest and is getting the chop in the next few days