Proven ways to store early cabbage until spring

Fresh white cabbage contains many vitamins and minerals. A wide variety of dishes are prepared from this vegetable. Most of the benefits come from cabbage grown in your own garden, since it is not treated with harmful pesticides. But the main thing is to learn how to keep the forks until spring in order to diversify the diet with a vitamin product in winter.

How to store early cabbage

The storage duration of a vegetable largely depends on the variety chosen. The late ones remain fresh for the longest, but they also have a long growing season. Early cabbage ripens quickly, its leaves are softer and juicier, and the taste is richer.

But many summer residents still prefer mid-season and late varieties. Under certain conditions, they are stored until fresh harvest. However, few people know that if you create a suitable environment for early varieties, they will also lie down without withering or sprouting for at least 2 months.

To do this, choose a suitable variety and the optimal time for cutting. After harvesting, the crop must be sorted and only then laid in a place suitable for storage.

Optimal conditions

During storage, cabbage may begin to rot, dry out or sprout. These troubles occur if the microclimate in the room is not suitable for the vegetable.

Reference. It is best to place crops in a cellar or basement where there is no access to sunlight.

It is not difficult to provide cabbage with optimal storage conditions:

1. It is important to maintain a stable temperature indoors. It should not fall below -1 ° C and rise above + 4 ° C. If it gets colder in the cellar, the leaves will freeze and become unsuitable for human consumption. At increased rates, the crop will begin to rot.
2. Humidity - at least 85%, but not more than 95%.
3. There must be good ventilation in the room. In the absence of fresh air, fungi and putrefactive bacteria actively multiply. If it is impossible to equip forced ventilation in the cellar, the room is ventilated monthly for 2-3 hours.

Selecting and preparing heads for fresh storage

It is important to properly prepare not only the room for laying cabbage for the winter, but also the heads of cabbage themselves for storage.

Reference. The keeping quality of a vegetable depends not only on the variety, but also on the growing conditions. The gardener is quite capable of making sure that even the early varieties remain fresh until spring.

The following agricultural practices will help to increase the storage duration:

1. Soil selection... Practice shows that cabbage grown on light sandy loam soils is stored much worse than the one planted in loam.
2. Precipitation. If it often rains during the ripening period, you should not count on long-term storage. Moisture seeps into the forks, making them looser.
3. Fertilizers. To accelerate growth, nitrogen fertilizing is often used. But if the goal of the summer resident is to grow cabbage, which will be stored all winter, it is better to refuse these fertilizers. They, like water, make the heads of cabbage looser and saturate the leaves with moisture.

The collection and preparation of the crop itself plays an important role. Done correctly, the forks will stay fresh and will not rot or fungus until spring.

Cutting rules

If the weather conditions for cutting the crop are chosen incorrectly, after a while the heads of cabbage will crack.

Important! The culture is not afraid of frosts, therefore, if the seedlings of early cabbage were planted at the end of summer and managed to ripen before autumn, it is better to wait until the daytime temperature drops or even light frosts. Then the vegetable will be preserved much better.

Other tips for harvesting:

1. Weather. Heads of cabbage are cut on dry and sunny days. If it has rained before or dew drops have accumulated on the leaves, it is better to wait until it is completely dry. Otherwise, the crop will have to be additionally dried before storing it.
2. Tool selection. The forks are cut with a very sharp knife. You cannot break out the vegetable by hand. From this, he will receive serious mechanical damage and quickly rot.
3. The length of the stalk. Ideally 3-4 cm, minimum 2 cm.

The upper leaves are not removed after cutting the cabbage. In the future, they are not eaten, but it is they who perform a protective function.

The harvested crop must be sorted and rejected forks are put aside:

1. Instances with any mechanical damage: cracks, dents from hail or accidental cuts.
2. Frozen and cracked from excess moisture.
3. Cabbage damaged by insects is also not stored. Underdeveloped vegetables that have not reached technical maturity by the time of harvest are also considered defective.

Such specimens cannot be laid in the basement. They will quickly rot and ruin the rest of the crop. It is better to chop them finely and ferment or salt them.

Suitable varieties

Early cabbage reaches full technical maturity by the end of June. She has thin leaves and not very dense heads of cabbage, so this vegetable cannot be preserved until spring.

Council. Residents of regions with a warm climate are better off planting seedlings not in spring, but in the middle or late summer. Then in August - September a second crop is harvested, which can still be stored for several months.

Most summer residents prefer not to plant early cabbage seedlings in several passes, but place early, mid-season and late varieties on the site. The latter are stored for the longest time. When selected correctly, the heads of cabbage will remain fresh and firm for 8 months.

The hardest and most stable varieties are Amager, Stone Head, Blizzard, Snow White and Gift. They are also recommended to be planted for long-term storage.

Storage space

A cool cellar or well-ventilated cellar is the best place to store your cabbage. But only owners of private houses have such premises. Residents of city apartments have to use other options.

Refrigerator

Several self-grown forks will successfully remain on the bottom shelf refrigerator.

Reference. In modern models, there is a so-called freshness zone. It works best for cabbage, but if the refrigerator is old, put the cabbage on the bottom shelf.

To keep the vegetable fresh longer, it is wrapped in paper or cling film. In the latter case, make sure that it adheres tightly to the leaves, otherwise condensation will begin to accumulate under it. If this has already happened, the film is changed.

Paper is the safer option. Heads of cabbage are first wrapped with it, and then placed in a plastic bag with a small hole for ventilation. The paper will have to be changed from time to time, as it will absorb excess moisture and accumulated condensation.

Balcony

A balcony is a versatile room for a city dweller. If you organize the space correctly, the whole harvest from the dacha will be successfully preserved here.

For storing cabbage on the balcony, forks are also wrapped in paper or cling film. It is better to put vegetables in special thermal containers or wooden boxes insulated with foam.

Cellar

A basement or cellar is the best place to place cabbage, provided that there is ventilation in the room and the temperature does not rise above + 4 ° C.

It is important that the cellar is dry. Otherwise, the forks will start to rot or mold.It is better to lay out the vegetable on wooden racks or place it in boxes in one layer so that the individual forks do not touch. With this placement, one rotten vegetable will not infect the others as quickly.

House / apartment

In an ordinary house or apartment, cabbage cannot be stored for a long time. In living quarters, the temperature is too high, and the leaves of the vegetable quickly begin to dry out and wither.

Storage methods

The easiest way to store cabbage is in cardboard boxes or wooden boxes.

The main thing is to arrange the vegetables in one layer and make sure that they do not come into contact with each other.

But there are other options:

1. On a sandy pillow. A wooden box is filled with a layer of sand 25 cm thick. The heads of cabbage are simply buried in the sand, leaving the stump on the surface.
2. In clay. To prepare a chatterbox, two parts of clay are diluted with one part of water. The resulting mixture is coated with forks and the clay is allowed to dry completely. In this state, vegetables are laid out on the shelf of the cellar, but they still should not touch.
3. Aweigh... For this method, when harvesting, stumps with a length of 8-10 cm are left. A rope is tied to them and the heads of cabbage are suspended by hooking the ropes over nails. Separate forks are spaced apart so that they do not touch in any way.

If there is a lot of sand and a large box, the cabbage is completely immersed in it. To do this, first a layer of sand is poured into the container, then cabbage is laid out in one row and sprinkled with sand again. In a similar way, lay out the second layer and so on, avoiding contact of individual forks.

How much early cabbage is stored

Early cabbage is not intended for long-term storage. Even if you follow all the tips above, there is no guarantee that the forks will not start to rot. Therefore, most summer residents still prefer to plant late varieties separately. They are harvested in October, and if stored properly, the cabbage stays fresh until spring.

An alternative way is conservation

If the efforts were unsuccessful, and some of the cabbage in the cellar began to rot, you can resort to an alternative storage option - conservation.

In this sense, cabbage is a versatile vegetable. On its basis they prepare canned vegetable salads, marinate it with the addition of mushrooms and simply ferment it in barrels. In terms of useful properties, such a vegetable is practically not inferior to fresh, and a wide selection of recipes for winter preparations will diversify the winter diet.

It is interesting:

The best ways to keep cauliflower for the winter at home.

Proven ways to keep cabbage fresh on the balcony in winter.

Conclusion

Early cabbage is appreciated for its early maturity and juiciness. But it is not always suitable for long-term storage. To keep the forks fresh and crispy for a long time, it is important to assemble them correctly, prepare a room with a suitable microclimate and choose containers for placing the heads.

If these conditions are not met, the cabbage is processed using one of the many recipes for harvesting for the winter.