Itinerário técnico
Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
Sow direct half a centimetre deep, in rows or broadcast, and thin to ten or fifteen centimetres if you want larger plants. Germination takes three to five days, among the fastest in the garden. Sow every two weeks: the cycle is short and the plant bolts quickly, so succession beats one big sowing.
It is undemanding and grows in any reasonable soil at a pH between 6.0 and 7.0, as long as it is moist and holds some organic matter. It is a brassica and belongs in the cabbage rotation, which many people forget.
A cool weather crop, between 10 °C and 20 °C. In heat and long days it bolts within days and the leaf turns very hot and coarse. Autumn, a mild winter and early spring give the best flavour. This is a cool season crop and heat is its main enemy. The Portuguese coast offers close to ideal conditions and allows harvests over much of the year. Inland in Portugal and Spain, concentrate the crop in autumn, winter and early spring, because from June onwards heat and long days push it to bolt and turn bitter. In France it grows easily from spring to autumn, and in Germany the whole summer works because it is rarely too hot. In Italy follow the Iberian calendar in the centre and south, concentrating the crop in autumn and winter, and the French calendar in the north, where the Po valley summer rarely makes it bolt too early. Light shade over the middle of the day extends the harvest in any warm climate. This is a short cycle variety, ideal for successional sowings and for using the cool windows of late winter and early autumn, before heat pushes the plant to bolt.
Because the leaf is the crop, nitrogen matters, but in moderate, slow release form. Mature compost before sowing and one or two waterings with liquid organic feed during growth give tender leaves without building up nitrates. Heavy late feeding makes the leaf brittle, attracts aphids and shortens shelf life after harvest.
Water often to keep the soil moist. Regularly watered leaves are tender with a balanced bite; thirsty leaves turn tough, bitter and harsh. Water in the morning.
Sown densely, the crop covers the soil itself and keeps weeds well in check. The work is concentrated in the first two or three weeks: hand weed or run a hoe very shallowly between the plants. Avoid disturbing the soil once the canopy closes, so you do not damage roots or bring fresh weed seed to the surface.
This family has many pests and prevention beats cure. Flea beetle, a small jumping beetle, riddles young leaves with round holes in hot dry weather: keep the soil moist and cover with fine mesh from sowing. Cabbage white caterpillars and diamondback moth eat the leaves from within: apply Bacillus thuringiensis while the caterpillars are small and check the underside of the leaves every week. Cabbage root fly lays at the collar and the larva destroys the root: a cardboard or felt collar around the stem stops the egg laying. Grey cabbage aphid forms waxy colonies on the shoots and is dealt with using potassium soap. A fine insect mesh put on at planting solves practically all of these at once.
It suffers few diseases because the cycle is so short. In damp weather downy mildew can appear on the leaf underside along with some leaf spotting. Sow less densely, water in the morning at the base, and rotate with the other brassicas.
Start picking three to four weeks after sowing, cutting the outer leaves and leaving the centre intact: it will regrow two or three times. Pick in the morning and never let the plant flower if you want mild leaves, because once the flower stem appears the heat becomes very intense. The flowers are edible and decorative. Allow about 21 to 30 days from sowing to the first harvest of this variety. The reference colour is green, and that is what tells you it is ready.
