2 pack x 1000 Red Acre Cabbage Seeds (Brassica oleracea), Non-GMO Compact Red-Purple Heading Cabbage, a Cool-Season Vegetable for Spring and Fall Garden Beds, Seeds for Slaws, Sauerkraut, Braises and Home Cooking

Red Acre Cabbage Seeds grow a classic red cabbage (Brassica oleracea), the compact, deep red-purple heading cabbage. This is a seed packet for planting, not a cabbage head, a seedling, a microgreen kit, or a harvested vegetable.

Product Details

Red Acre is a well-known, reliable red cabbage grown for its solid, round, richly coloured heads and its crisp, peppery-sweet leaves, the kind shredded raw into slaws and salads, fermented into sauerkraut and kimchi, or cooked into braises and stir-fries. Its colour and dependable heading make it a favourite with home vegetable gardeners, and it fits garden rows, raised beds, and roomy containers with space to head up.

Cabbage is a cool-season crop, so timing is the main thing to get right. It grows best in the cooler parts of the year and can handle a light frost, so many gardeners start seed indoors a few weeks before the last spring frost and transplant out, or direct-sow in early spring, and it can also be sown in mid to late summer for an autumn and early-winter crop. Give it full sun, fertile, well-drained soil, and steady moisture, since even, unchecked growth is what produces firm, split-free heads, and allow generous spacing between plants so each has room to size up.

It is a poor fit for a few situations. It is not a warm-season crop that shrugs off summer heat, not an instant harvest, and not a tiny-container plant, since full heads need room. Gardeners without a cool growing window or space should choose something else.

Set realistic expectations on timing and size. Depending on the season and conditions, cabbage generally takes on the order of a couple of months or more from transplanting to a firm, cuttable head, and final head size, colour depth, and timing depend on the weather, soil, spacing, and care rather than on the seed alone.

Timing and a warm start under cover set the crop up. For a spring crop, many growers sow indoors about six to eight weeks before the last frost and transplant out; for an autumn crop, they sow a few weeks before the intended midsummer planting. The seed germinates quickly, usually in about seven to twelve days, when the soil sits somewhere between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, after which the young plants are grown on sturdy and hardened off before going out.

Spacing and patience then do the rest. Set the transplants roughly twelve to twenty-four inches apart depending on the head size you want, since closer spacing gives smaller, neater heads and wider spacing larger ones, and expect around seventy to a hundred days from transplanting to a firm, cuttable head. Red Acre is prized for being compact and early, with solid round heads of a manageable size, which is exactly why it suits small gardens, raised beds, and roomy containers.

Even, unchecked growth is the secret to good heads. The most common disappointment, a head that splits open, comes from a sudden surge of water after a dry spell, so steady, consistent moisture and a mulch to even it out are the real fix, along with easing off feeding late in the crop. Red Acre has a helpful reputation for resisting splitting and for standing a little longer in good condition than some cabbages.

A little pest awareness keeps the crop clean. Cabbage white caterpillars and loopers chew ragged holes and bore into the heads, and are best handled by covering plants with fine insect netting from planting, hand-picking, or using the natural caterpillar control Bacillus thuringiensis; aphids that cluster and curl the leaves are knocked back with a strong jet of water or insecticidal soap. Rotating where you grow cabbages and their brassica relatives every few years, and keeping the soil limed and sweet, helps head off soil troubles such as clubroot.

Bolting is the other thing to design around. Cabbage runs to flower when young plants are stressed by a spell of hard cold or, more often, by heat, so the whole art is to time sowings and transplants so the crop matures in cool, steady weather rather than through the peak of summer. In hot regions that usually means growing it as a spring and autumn crop rather than a summer one.

In the kitchen the deep colour is a real asset, and worth cooking cleverly. Shredded raw, the crisp, peppery-sweet leaves hold their vivid red-purple in slaws and salads; fermented, they make a striking magenta sauerkraut or go into kimchi; and braised or stir-fried they stay rich and glossy, though a splash of vinegar or a squeeze of citrus in the pan helps keep that colour from turning blue, since red cabbage is sensitive to how acidic or alkaline the cooking is.

It is a good keeper, too. A firm, well-grown head cut with a few wrapper leaves left on stores for weeks in a cool, humid spot such as a fridge drawer or a cold shed, so a small row can feed a kitchen well past the growing season. That combination of colour, crunch, versatility, and storage life is much of why Red Acre has stayed a staple for so long.

Cabbage repays a little planning in the bed. It is a hungry plant that does best in firm, fertile, limed ground that has not grown brassicas the previous year or two, and it grows well alongside aromatic herbs and plants that help confuse its pests, while being kept clear of other cabbages, kale, and broccoli that share the same troubles. Firming the soil well around transplants gives the developing head a stable footing.

Harvesting has a small bonus. Cut the firm head cleanly with a sharp knife when it feels solid, and if you leave the stump and its outer leaves in the ground, many red cabbages will push out a cluster of small, loose secondary heads for a bonus later picking. Lifting spent stumps and clearing debris at the end, though, is worth doing to break the cycle of pests and disease.

Growing your own also lets you pick at the peak. A cabbage cut fresh from the garden is crisper and sweeter than one that has sat in storage and transit, and the compact Red Acre lets even a small plot or a few large containers produce several solid heads. For a beginner it is forgiving and dependable, and for an experienced grower it is a colourful, useful staple that earns its space.

Handle it as a cool-season heading-cabbage project rather than a fixed harvest. Keep unused seed cool, dry, and sealed, and follow the packet directions for sowing depth, spacing, and timing that suit your climate.

Product Highlights

• Red Acre Cabbage Seeds grow a classic red cabbage (Brassica oleracea), the compact, deep red-purple heading cabbage with solid, round heads and crisp, peppery-sweet leaves that keep their rich colour when grown well and picked at the right size.
• A reliable, well-loved variety grown for its rich colour and dependable heading, shredded raw into slaws and salads, fermented into sauerkraut and kimchi, or cooked into braises, soups, and stir-fries for hearty cool-weather dishes.
• Cabbage is a cool-season crop, so timing matters: start seed indoors a few weeks before the last spring frost and transplant, direct-sow in early spring, or sow in mid to late summer for an autumn and early-winter crop, since it grows best in mild weather.
• Give it full sun, fertile, well-drained soil, and steady, even moisture so growth stays unchecked and heads form firm and split-free, and allow generous spacing between plants so each has room to size up in a bed, row, or roomy container.
• It is not a warm-season, instant, or tiny-pot crop, and it generally takes a couple of months or more from transplanting to a firm head, with size and colour depending on weather, soil, spacing, and care; store any spare seed cool, dry, and sealed.

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