Cabbage

Brassica oleracea Capitata Group · Cabbage family

Plant portrait

Heading cabbages gather their central leaves into a tight head above more open outer leaves. Depending on the variety, heads may be rounded or pointed, green, pale or purple.

Harvested part

The leaves forming the head and tender outer leaves.

What to watch for

Watch new leaves draw together at the centre and form a firmer head. A cabbage head is made of folded leaves; it is neither a fruit nor a cauliflower’s flower curd.

Growth stages of the cabbage

Plotilo illustrates the cabbage in 5 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.

Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.

See the cabbage in 3D

Same botanical family

Same botanical family as the cabbage (the cabbage family): the radish, the broccoli, the cauliflower, the turnip, the Chinese cabbage, the Brussels sprout and 8 more plants from the catalogue. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.