Long-term storage methods for cabbage

What varieties are suitable

Gardeners usually select cabbage varieties for planting so that it ripens gradually throughout the season. Then from the middle of summer you can feast on your fresh one, only from the garden. Early varieties are intended for salads, the taste of early cabbage is delicate and pleasant, but you should not salt or even stew it. It is also impossible to store it, and in terms of vitamin C content, it loses to later varieties. And heads of cabbage of late varieties seem tough in summer, and the leaves are not so tasty. But after a few months, after storage in a cellar or basement, the late cabbage seems to ripen, it acquires its real taste, loses its bitterness, no longer seems tough, but only juicy. So it should be, that's why they are late varieties.

Late varieties are distinguished by a long growing season, specially bred hybrids perfectly tolerate the summer heat, their weight reaches 4 kg, and in some even 8 kg. They have different storage times: some can be kept in the cellar for only 2 months, others - 4, there are varieties that are perfectly preserved until the next harvest. They even look different. Heads of cabbage are dense, even hard, sometimes flattened, at the time of harvesting, bitter in taste - these should definitely be put for long-term storage in order to enjoy them in winter, when they acquire a real taste.

The variety "Zimovka", loved by our gardeners, can be perfectly preserved for 7 months, without cracking or blackening. The cabbage of this variety has bluish-bluish leaves, covered, like a waxy bloom. It grows well in the north of the country, is not afraid of the heat, and is not susceptible to fungal diseases. The varieties "Kolobok", "Monarch" and "Crumont" have similar characteristics. And the Dutch hybrids "Marathon", "Lennox" and "Bartolo" are the record holders of long-term storage today.

There are even short-growing hybrids like Eaton and Hurricane that can be kept in the cellar for 7 months. Cabbage variety "Gift" can be stored for at least 5 months. Her heads of cabbage are round, dense, grow more than 3 kg and do not crack, very good for pickling and pickling.

It is very bad for cabbage if hot weather occurs during the formation of the head of cabbage. Then its development stops, and the owner gets a bad harvest. To prevent this from happening, breeders have developed new hybrids that already take into account the climatic changes that have occurred in our country. "Valentina", "Maryana", "Quartet", "Olympus", "Orbita", "Sorcerer" - cabbage of these varieties wonderfully copes with temperature changes, easily tolerates heat and dryness in the middle of summer. And "Orbit" and "Valentina" can reach 7 kg of weight and perfectly winter in a basement or cellar.

Gardeners like the "Slava" variety, it is a medium late variety, it ripens for 3-4 months, has a good yield, does not crack, the head of cabbage reaches 5 kg of weight, it can be stored for 3 months.For those who love large cabbage heads, there is a late variety "Moscow late", its dense heads of cabbage grow up to 8 kg and are stored for a long time without losing their qualities.

The "Türkiz" variety ripens 4 months from the day of planting, it is well stored in winter at home, wonderfully suitable for pickling. But "Amager" belongs to those varieties, the taste of which improves during storage. Timiryazev Academy in its catalog offers the following varieties for long-term storage: Albatross F1, Amtrak F1, Aros F1, Bingo F1, Blizzard, Galaxy F1, Kalorama F1, Lezhky F1 , Latima F1, Rusinovka and Transma F1. They are resistant to major diseases and yield good yields.

Video "Cabbage varieties for long-term storage"

Storage methods

Before thinking about how to properly store cabbage, you need to collect it correctly. Harvesting is done at the time specified for each variety. So mid-late varieties are harvested in early or mid-October, and late-ripening ones - after the first small frosts, it may even be November. For salting, you need to take cabbage in mid-October. Cabbage, harvested ahead of time, withers quickly, and if it is frozen, the head of cabbage will burst, so you need to follow the timing.

On a dry, fine day, the cabbage is cut with a sharp knife, leaving a stalk no shorter than 2 cm. Cabbage harvested in wet weather must dry out in the open air before being stored. If you want to get seeds from your cabbage, then you need to choose the healthiest and intact forks, dig it up by the root, do not pick off the covering leaves, but put it in storage in the cellar. Such a precious head of cabbage is kept in limbo until spring, and then planted in the garden as soon as the ground thaws.

If the cabbage will be stored for a long time, you need to sort it out, leave only undamaged heads of cabbage, tear off the extra leaves, leave 2-3 cover leaves. Most often, cellars, cellars, cold storage rooms are chosen for storage at home. Ideal storage conditions should be as follows: temperature from -1 to + 1 degrees, humidity from 90% to 98%. If the temperature is higher, the cabbage will grow, if it is lower, it will freeze. Cabbage is a juicy vegetable, and during storage, it releases moisture, if the room is too humid, it can rot, if dry, it dries up, and at a humidity of 98%, it does not need to intensively evaporate moisture, the top couple of leaves will gradually dry out and fit more tightly to the rest. During storage, the cabbage heads should not touch, and the cabbage stumps must be directed upwards.

The storage room is prepared in advance. Cleaning is done there in advance, it also needs to be ventilated, dried and disinfected. Disinfection is usually done like this: the walls are whitewashed with lime, and the whole room is then fumigated with sulfur. Cabbage is placed in boxes with holes or slots, and the boxes themselves are placed not on the floor, but on some kind of support. They are also stored on a large wooden flooring, folding in a pyramid: the largest ones go to the base, and the smallest are crowned, the cabbage is folded in a checkerboard pattern. The flooring should not be continuous; it is better to knock it down from separate slats, keeping the gaps between them.

The cabbage is stored by wrapping it in several layers of paper. Moreover, if a newspaper is used, then not the first layer, in order to avoid touching the leaves of lead paint. Heads of cabbage wrapped in paper are put in bags. It is stored in the sand, for this a thick layer of sand is poured on the floor, cabbage is laid on it, and then covered with sand again. You can sprinkle the cabbage with sand in boxes.

Hanging cabbage is stored not only for seeds. When harvesting, the cabbage should be dug up by the roots. In the storage room, a timber or board is installed under the ceiling at a distance of at least 30 cm from the wall. Nails are driven into it from both sides, onto which they hang cabbage by the roots (tying a rope).So you can hang out the entire crop, but only if it is small.

It is good to store red cabbage slightly dug in the ground. To do this, it is dug up by the roots and dropped in a bucket or even a bag in moist soil. They say that you can also store white cabbage in basements.

All these storage methods have been known for a long time. But now many have already tried to leave cabbage for the winter, wrapping it tightly with three layers of cling film. Selected heads of cabbage without damage must be tightly wrapped and folded in the cellar on shelves or in the same boxes. To the question of how to store cabbage in refrigerated chambers, the same answer - using cling film, only in the refrigerator we already store parts of the head of cabbage, which we cut, and in the basement we keep whole forks. Some gardeners have tried putting vegetables in new thick plastic bags. You can put one head of cabbage in them, or even several, the most important thing is that the bag is intact, the bags are tightly tied and stacked for storage.

To better preserve the cabbage heads, some owners sprinkle them with chalk or coat them with clay. To do this, prepare a solution of clay in consistency similar to the dough for pancakes, coat the cabbage with this solution so that the leaves do not show through, and hang it on a bar.

How and wherever the cabbage is stored, it still needs to be checked periodically and removed the one that has started to deteriorate. How to store cabbage in the refrigerator? It can be frozen chopped, cooked for stew along with other vegetables. And the whole heads can be simply folded into plastic bags and not tied.

Video "How to store cabbage for a long time"

From the video you will learn how you can keep any amount of this vegetable for a very long time.