Cabbage is one of the ten most popular vegetable crops that are traditionally grown in our country. It so happens that gardeners notice yellow on the cabbage foliage. In this article, we will examine why leaves on cabbage turn yellow and dry, possible causes and ways to combat this phenomenon.
The basic rules of growing cabbage
Cruciferous crops grow well in light, fertilized soils, with a neutral pH (from 6.5 to 7.5). If early varieties are grown, light and quickly warming up will be the best soil. It is advisable that fertilizer be added to the soil since the fall (manure or humus). Cabbage is very fond of watering, especially when tying heads, so it is important to water planting in sufficient quantities. For growth, culture prefers places that are well lit by the sun. It is also important that before this cruciferous beds were not grown for several years.
Did you know? Cabbage is useful for the body in that it reduces the possibility of cancer, improves brain activity and the nervous system. Vegetable favorably affects the strength of the skeleton, maintains normal blood pressure, promotes intestinal function, regulates blood sugar.
Cabbage can be grown from seedlings, which are planted in the field or film tunnels after the appearance of 4 real leaves. Early varieties are grown according to the scheme: 40-50 cm in a row and the same between rows. For late varieties, such a planting pattern is suitable: 50–70 cm (in a row) and 50–60 cm (between rows). Ornamental cabbage varieties can be planted more densely, because they tie small heads of cabbage, but Brussels sprouts are planted according to the same pattern as late cabbage.
Early cabbage varieties are planted in April, mid-ripening varieties from the last ten days of April to May 15, and the late ones from May 15 to June 15. The landing date should be adapted to climatic and weather conditions. Landing is best done in cloudy weather. The date of planting of early varieties should be chosen so that the crop can be harvested before the onset of hot summer weather.
The main causes of yellowing leaves
There can be many reasons. For example, lack of moisture in the soil, pests that damage roots or leaves, the development of fungal diseases (fusarium or keel).
Insufficient watering of cabbage
In the summer heat, the owners of the beds, visiting the summer cottage only occasionally, may be unpleasantly surprised at the sight of the cabbage beds with yellowed and fading leaves. This indicates a lack of moisture. Like all cruciferous cabbage, cabbage is very fond of water, but when waterlogging the area prone to the development of root rot.
Cabbage can be watered in several ways: from a garden watering can under the root, through a drip irrigation system or by sprinkling on a leaf. It is most convenient for people who rarely come to the site to arrange drip irrigation for plants connected to the tank. The drip irrigation system will need to be adjusted so that there is enough water in the tank to moisten the cabbage beds for a week or two, as needed.
So that the cabbage headed tightly, and the leaves were crispy and juicy, in the summer you need to moisten the soil under the crop about every 3 days. When watering, you need to remember that for each plant requires at least 2-3 liters of water for one irrigation. Cabbage is also very fond of sprinkling, which means you can water the cabbage bed directly from the hose along the leaf.
Potassium deficiency
Yellowed cabbage leaves can also signal a lack of nutrients. Often, cabbage reacts in exactly this way to the lack of a mineral, potassium, which is very important for cruciferous crops. In this case, a good enough potassium top dressing, and pallor and yellowness will cease to appear on the leaves.
Potash deficiency is not so pronounced on adult heads of cabbage, as on young seedlings recently planted in potassium-poor soil. If the inspection of the cabbage bed confirmed that the heads and heads of the heads turn yellow, the plants have lost turgor and look lethargic, so it's time to feed the culture with potassium. Potash dressing can be done in two ways.
- Method 1: scatter potassium sulfate in the row spacing on the soil at the rate of 10-15 g per 1 m², then water the soil abundantly from a watering can or hose.
- Method 2: 10-15 g of potassium sulfate is mixed with 10 l of water, thoroughly mixed until completely dissolved and watered with this solution every 1 m² of cabbage beds.
Pesticide burns
It so happens that the cabbage garden upsets with yellow leaves, but the reason has not been established. Perhaps these are the consequences of processing plantings with insecticides from pests or other chemicals. Often these consequences are exceeded by the indicated dosage when using chemicals or neglect of the manufacturer's recommendations about the time of day and air temperature during the use of the drug.
Plants can get burned if the treatment took place on a leaf at hot noon. All chemical and biological treatments of plantings are recommended in the evening (after 16 hours) or on a cool, cloudy day.
How to help burnt plants:
- increase the abundance and frequency of watering;
- remove from the cabbage the most affected upper leaves;
- to relieve stress, treat the plants according to the sheet with Epin or Zircon growth stimulants;
- no longer carry out any chemical treatments, trying to use infusions and decoctions on herbs.
Burrowing Insect Pests
When a beautifully growing cabbage suddenly begins to turn yellow and wither, the gardener should pull out one plant and examine its root system and the soil in which it grew. If traces of insect pests are found, it is necessary to clean the area from them. There is no need to hope that these will be isolated cases of wrecking, because insects that have chosen this garden as their home will gradually destroy the entire crop.
Did you know? Cabbage contains vitamins K, C and group B (B1, B2, B6). This vegetable — A good source of folic acid, copper, potassium, manganese and dietary fiber. In cabbage, there are also such substances as phosphorus and choline, calcium and magnesium, iron and selenium, protein and pantothenic acid, niacin.
The bear and the larva of the May beetle move underground, gnawing all the plant roots encountered along the way, after which the plants dry out.
Soil pests that threaten the cabbage bed:
Leaf-eating insect pests
Cabbage is also threatened by insects, gnawing leaves. They are easier to see on the cabbage leaves, therefore, protection can be applied faster. The activity of insects leads to the coating of cabbage leaves with strokes, punctures and bites, as a result, the plant dries out. It is not necessary to think that cabbage pests prefer white cabbage only. With the same appetite, they feed on broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower and ornamental cabbage, and any cruciferous weeds. That is why it is necessary to remove from the plot all weeds (shepherd’s bag, colza), which can serve as pests at home and in the dining room.
Important! Insects are often carriers of viral and bacterial diseases from one garden crop to another. Especially quickly sick plants that have damaged parts (bitten leaf, gnawed root).
You can drive insects away from the area with cabbage, treating the plants with decoctions with sharp smells: onions, garlic, tansy, wormwood, marigolds. To these decoctions add a little laundry soap as a sticky substance. The beds are also dusted with wood ash and shredded tobacco leaves. You can plant a plot along the perimeter with two rows of marigolds.
Blooming marigolds emit a pungent odor that is unpleasant for insects, thereby repelling pests from cabbage locations. But all the above methods are good as prophylaxis, and if the invasion of insects has become widespread, it is advisable to immediately treat the cabbage with insecticides.
Leaf-eating pests of cabbage beds:
Kila cabbage
It happens that when trying to find gnawing insects in the ground, a gardener finds strange cones on the roots of a diseased plant. These growths are a keel, which is much more dangerous than the same bear, since it is difficult to stop this disease.
Important! In the area where the keel is found, you can not plant plants belonging to the cruciferous family for 5 years, because the causative agent of the disease (fungal spores) remains in the ground for a long time. On this site, it is better to grow garlic, marigolds, onions, tomatoes, potatoes or beets.
Patient heads of cabbage cannot be treated, therefore they are pulled out with the root and taken out of the site. To prevent the spread of the disease, it is recommended to burn diseased plants. The soil on the cabbage bed, where the keel is found, must be shed from a garden watering can with 0.1% Fundazole solution, then sprinkled with quicklime and wood ash, about 0.5-0.7 kg per 1 m².
Fusarium cabbage
The first sign of fusarium is the development of yellow spots on the leaves, which are usually more noticeable on one side of the plant. The disease is accompanied by lateral deformation or twisting of the stem and leaves. First, the lower leaves turn yellow, then the symptoms move to the upper. Over time, the tissue in the affected area becomes brown, dry and brittle.
Fusariosis is a fungal disease whose spores can remain viable for many years. The pathogen hibernates in the soil and remains latent until the start of a hot period (+25 ... + 32 ° C). The rate of development of symptoms of Fusarium infection depends on the degree of susceptibility of the cabbage variety and soil temperature. Under warm conditions, some varieties may die in 2 weeks. In other cases, the plant may fade gradually and for a long time (2-3 months).
How to deal with Fusarium:
- carry out pre-sowing seed treatment;
- grow resistant varieties.
What to do so that the leaves do not turn yellow
Correctly combat yellowing of the leaves is possible only after the cause is correctly established. It may be necessary to urgently treat the plants with pest preparations, and perhaps planting urgently needs irrigation or top dressing.
Processing
After it is established that insect pests are the cause of the yellowness on the cabbage, the treatment of plantings with insecticides can be applied. It can be both chemical and biological preparations. Folk experience offers many biologically pure recipes for protecting cabbage from insects.
Chemical
The causes of yellowing can be controlled by chemical means. Such drugs as Trichodermin, Fundazolum, Paracelsus, MikoHelp are suitable against fusarium. Insects full of cabbage leaves can be destroyed with the help of such preparations: Actofit, Nurel D, Cabbage Rescuer, Aktara, Decis, Bi-58.
To destroy ground pests, you can use poisonous baits: "Bazudin", "Antichrush", "Zemlin". These preparations are in the form of granules, painted in bright colors. They are embedded in the soil of a pest infected site.
Folk
If the gardener does not want to use chemical means of protecting the cabbage beds from insects, then proven folk methods can be used.
From aphids:
- Half a bucket of water is boiled, after which about 2 kg of tomato stepsons are added there. The container is covered with a lid and left to infuse for about 4 hours, then again brought to a boil and cooked on low heat for 3 hours. At this time, 0.5 kg of onion husks are mixed with 2 liters of boiling water and left for a couple of hours for infusion. Both solutions are filtered and mixed, after which they add liquid laundry soap (as a sticky base). Before spraying heads, the resulting concentrated solution is diluted. To do this, add 1 liter of pure water to 1 liter of broth.
- Take 0.5 kg of fresh tobacco leaves, pour 2 liters of boiling water and boil over low heat for about 2 hours. Next, the broth is separated from the plant material and add 2 tbsp. l liquid soap. Before use, the resulting insecticide is mixed with 8 l of pure water.
From the caterpillars:
- 5 liters of water are mixed with 250 ml of wood ash (sifted through a sieve) and 50 g of tar soap (grated on a fine grater). Stir until the soap is completely dissolved and leave to infuse for 24 hours. Ready infusion is used to spray cabbage.
- Cabbage heads are powdered with ordinary baking soda.
- In small areas of caterpillars collected manually.
- Attracted to the cabbage bed of wasps, which are natural predators for caterpillars. Wasps can be attracted by spraying plants with water with sugar or honey.
- High poles with white egg shells are put on cabbage patches with cabbage. Practitioners claim that this method perfectly discourages butterfly whites and does not allow them to lay eggs on cabbage leaves.
From cruciferous flea:
- Before watering, add a little fir oil to the water. Cruciferous flea does not tolerate this smell.
- Plants are watered by adding flea shampoo for animals to the water. You can buy it at any zoological store.
- The leaves are sprinkled with red ground pepper, wood ash, tobacco dust. Dusting is carried out in the morning until the cabbage leaves have dried out from the dew, which will allow the product to stick well to them. After watering on a leaf or in the past rain, dusting is carried out again.
Troubleshooting watering errors
Cabbage loves water, but does not like to grow in swampy soil. This can happen if the plants are planted in heavy clay soil. If it happens that an excess of moisture is clearly visible in the soil, it is necessary to carry out extraordinary loosening of row-spacing. This will allow the soil to dry out a bit. Cabbage should not be watered with cold water, especially watering directly from an artesian well, since the water in it is always icy.
Irrigation with cold water can cause the development of fungal diseases on the cabbage. It is better to heat water for irrigation in the sun. It is also undesirable to carry out irregular irrigation, exposing plants to a prolonged period of drought, or, conversely, too often and abundantly filling the cabbage bed.
Fertilizer application
A plot intended for planting cabbage is best fertilized in the fall. For fertilizer, humus is excellent, obtained from cattle manure, planted in the soil from autumn. Cabbage can not be fertilized with fresh manure - this will lead to softening of the stump and the appearance of root or stem rot.
Did you know? In cooking, cabbage is prepared in various ways: it is pickled, fermented, boiled in water and steamed, fried, stewed or eaten raw in the form of salads. Vegetables are traditionally used for cooking first and second courses.
If there are no organic fertilizers, you can add mineral fertilizers for cruciferous plants to the soil before plowing. During the growing season, cabbage can also be fed with potash fertilizers. Potash top dressing can be carried out both at the seedling stage and at the stage of setting heads of cabbage.
Preventative measures
In order to prevent yellow leaves from appearing on the cabbage, it is necessary to take preventive measures against the appearance of pests on plants and in the ground, as well as against the development of diseases and lack of nutrients.
As a prophylaxis should:
- fertilize the area before planting plants and, if necessary, during the growing season of cabbage;
- control the number of pests by treating plants with insecticides or biological protective agents;
- regularly moisten the soil under cabbage;
- at the first signs of the development of the disease, take the necessary measures (treat with fungicides, remove diseased plants from the garden).
The appearance on the cabbage of yellowing and withering leaves is the first sign that not everything is in order with the plant. In this case, the grower should understand the causes of cabbage malaise and take the necessary measures to eliminate them.
