Savoy cabbage

Short description of the species

Botanical name

Savoy cabbage

Latin name

Brassica oleracea sk. sabauda

Family

Brassicaceae

Plant height

flowering stem (2nd year): to 1.6-1.8 m

Exposure

relatively undemanding – sun (not very exposed location) or shadow

Temperature requirement

freeze-resistant (to -5 °C)

Keeping

medium

Water requirement

high

Soil requirement

medium-heavy, permeable, high humus content (requirement of direct organic fertilisation)

Soil pH

6.0 – 7.5

Edible part

head

accessibility

Usage

direct consumption – salads, side dish, soups

Growing technology and harvest 

Propagation 

• generative – growing from seedlings 

Spacing 

• early cultivars = 0.40 - 0.40 m 

• summer and later cultivars = 0.50 x 0.50 m 

Harvest 

• manual selection – early cultivars 

• later cultivars – semi-mechanized/mechanized harvest (to the start of freeze period) 

• heads for storage - harvest with 2-3 outside leaves  

• winter (late resistant) cultivars – possibility for over-wintering in the field and continuous harvest 

Important dates 

• growing from seedlings + covering textile (late cultivars – protection against pests, mainly 2-3 weeks after planting) 

Storage 

• temperature = 0-1 °C 

• relative air humidity = 85-90% 

• storage period of late cultivars = 4-6 months 

Use 

• direct consumption – salads, side dish, soups 

Diseases and pests 

• the most dangerous disease: clubroot (Plasmodiophora brasssicae) – incorrect crop rotation 

• virus diseases: virus mosaics 

• bacterial diseases: wet rottiness (Erwinia sp., Pseudomonas sp.), black rottiness (Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris) 

• fungus diseases: falling of germinating plants (several species of microscopic funguses - Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium spp., Mycosphaerella brassicicola, Olpidium brassicae, Phytophtora spp., Pythium spp., Thanatephrous cucumeris, Verticillium spp. etc.), downy mildew (Hyaloperonospora parasitica), Alternaria leaf spottiness (Alternaria brassicicola, A. brassicae), cabbage ring spottiness (Mycosphaerella brassicicola), Phoma rottiness (Leptosphaeria maculans), Rhizoctonia rottiness (Thanatephorus cucumeris) 

• pests: cabbage root fly (Delia radicum), cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae), flea-beetles (Phyllotreta spp.), white butterfly (Pieris brassicae, Pieris rape), cabbage moth (Mamestra brassicae), turnip moth (Agrotis segetum), diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella), swede midge (Contarinia nasturtii), cabbage whitefly (Aleurodes proletella)