Giant Cabbages: progress report
My giants have taken a leaf out of my report on the Giant’s Causeway and have not quite lived up to my expectations so far this year and my onions (which I will take a photo of, and weigh, soon) will not win any awards. But my ‘Champion Giant’ cabbages (from Robinson’s Mammoth seeds*) have actually done quite well. I planted 16, four in each of four 2m square beds, with a canna in the centre for scale. So each plant basically had a square metre to fill. Now some have grown but not formed heads yet which I will put down to a combination of dry conditions and maybe clubroot in the soil (I do have it in some areas and I will know better when I pull the plants up)**.
Meanwhile some are doing quite well. Time to make some mayo for the coleslaw I think. Weigh-in soon.
*Â http://www.mammothonion.co.uk
** In one area I have planted a batch of ‘Kilaton’ cabbages which are supposed to be resistant to clubroot. I also have the summer, red ‘Kalibos’ planted here and although some of the plants are not hearting well and probably are suffering from clubroot they are doing better than the ‘Killaton’ so far – very odd.
The Biking Gardener 
Wow! Huge! Never had much luck with cabbages.
I tell people they are giant sprouts to really impress them 🙂
Nice one!
Hello,
I am a clubroot researcher from Sweden particularly interested in “resistant” cultivars. We performed an experiment with Killaton in 2014 and the cultivar seem to be quite susceptible!
That is interesting. In 2013 I grew several cabbages and other brassicas and most had clubroot to some extent – i was new to the garden here and was not aware that there was clubroot in the soil – it is heavy clay with a pH of about 6. In winter 13/14 I added mushroom compost to the soil and also lime to one new bed that had not been used for many years. In summer 2014 I had no clubroot on Kilaton but then none an anything else apart from some calabrese! The cabbages grown with Kilaton, grown in the bed where clubroot symptoms were seen the year before, showed no symptoms! quite strange. So although I can say that kilaton, grown in soil where clubroot is present, showed no signs of the diseases last year, nor did the other cabbages so my trial was a bit inconclusive! The mushroom compost contains some lime but not large amounts so I was a bit confused