Short answer: Cabbage forms firm heads only when the nights are cool and the water is steady, so in Ghana it is grown in the cooler months, in the north under irrigation, or on the cooler hill ground. Raise transplants for about four weeks, plant at 60 by 45 cm, and keep the bed limed and watered. The two pests that decide most crops are diamondback moth and aphids, and the two diseases to avoid are clubroot and black rot, which both spread from seed, transplants and the soil itself.
Key takeaways
- Plant cabbage for the cooler months or on cooler ground, because heat makes loose heads, bolting and bitter leaves.
- Buy hybrid seed from a source you trust, raise the transplants for about four weeks, and set them out at 60 by 45 cm.
- Scout for diamondback moth larvae from the first week in the field, since the moth can outrun a late spray.
- Lime acid soils before planting and rotate away from brassicas, so clubroot does not build up in the bed.
- Cut heads when they are firm and solid, and get them cool and off the ground before the sun gets to them.
Why cabbage sulks in the heat and what that means for planting
Cabbage is a cool-weather plant that has been bred into a shape it struggles to hold in Ghana's hot months. In warm weather the plant puts its energy into leaves and stems, the head stays loose, and the leaves turn bitter. In hot spells it can bolt, sending up a flower stalk before any head has formed. Growers who plant cabbage in April on the coast, or in the middle of the rains anywhere, often get a field of large leaves and very little to sell.
Cabbage is not something we grow. We hatch day-old chicks at Opeikuma near Kasoa. We write about it because many poultry keepers look for a second crop that brings in money at a different time of year from their birds. Cabbage can fill that gap, but only if you plant it on the right calendar.
The rest of this guide starts with the calendar and the ground, then covers the nursery, the transplant, the feed, the water, the pests, the diseases and the sale. The sequence matters, because a head that splits or rots in the market usually started going wrong in the nursery three months earlier.
Cool months, cooler hills and the irrigated northern crop
Ghanaian cabbage is grown in three broad settings. In the cooler hill country, such as the Akwapim ridge and some of the higher ground of the Volta region, cabbage can be planted through the cooler part of the year with fewer adjustments. In the northern savannah, the crop is a dry-season crop under irrigation, planted as the nights cool and harvested before the hot season sets in properly. On the coast and in the forest zone, the best window is the drier, cooler spell, and growers use shade, mulch and careful water to get through the warmer days.
The table below is a planning guide. Your own calendar, your altitude and your local rainfall will move the dates, so use it as a starting point and check it with your district extension office.
| Setting | Nursery sown | Transplant | Head cutting | Main constraint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooler hill ground (Akwapim ridge, Volta highlands) | Late dry season | Early rains, when the nights stay cool | Two to three months after transplanting | Waterlogging in heavy rain |
| Northern savannah, irrigated | October to November | November to December | January to March | Water supply and hot afternoons |
| Coast and forest zone, dry-season bed | Under shade in the dry months | When the early nights cool | Before the big rains | Heat, humidity and pest pressure |
Choose ground that drains well and gets at least half a day of direct sun. Cabbage stands for a long time in the bed, so a patch that waterlogs in the first heavy rain will rot the lower stalks before the heads are ready.
Hybrid heads, early types and seed that comes clean
Most growers now plant F1 hybrid cabbage, because hybrids give more uniform heads and a more reliable harvest than open-pollinated lines. Varieties sold under names such as Copenhagen Market, an early round type, are widely planted in West African gardens, but local recommendations change, so ask your seed supplier and your MoFA office which types have been tested in your zone. Pick a type for its maturity as well as its shape. An early type gives you a faster return, and a mid-season type can hold the field longer when the weather is kind.
Seed quality matters more with cabbage than with many vegetables, because the worst diseases travel in the seed. Black rot and some soft rots can ride in on seed that looks perfect. Buy seed in sealed packets from a dealer who can tell you the lot number, and avoid saving seed from your own field unless you know it was clean and you know how to save it.
Keep the seed packet cool and dry until sowing. Heat and damp reduce germination quickly, and a lot of poor nursery results come from seed that sat in a hot shed for a season.
Germinating seed and raising transplants in about four weeks
Cabbage seed germinates quickly, often within three to five days at warm temperatures, and the seedlings grow fast in the first two weeks. Sow in trays or in a shaded seedbed, with the seed about half a centimetre deep in a light, fine mix. Keep the surface moist but not soggy, and move the trays under a net or a roof so the young seedlings are not hit by heavy rain or harsh midday sun.
Transplant at four to five weeks, when the seedlings have four to six true leaves and a stem about the thickness of a matchstick. Harden them off for three to four days before planting out, by reducing water and moving them into more sun. A seedling that goes into the field leggy and soft wilts badly in the first hot afternoon, and it sets its head late.
- Use clean trays or fresh mix, and never reuse a tray that carried sick plants.
- Sow thinly, so the seedlings are not crowded and do not stretch towards each other.
- Check the nursery for flea beetles, which pock the young leaves, and for caterpillars on the undersides.
- Pull out any seedling with black, V-shaped lesions on the leaf margins before it reaches the field.
A tray of healthy transplants is the cheapest insurance in the whole cabbage crop. A poor transplant costs you the full season, while a good one carries a head through the first month of pests and weather.
Transplanting, spacing and the rotation that keeps clubroot out
Set the transplants out in the late afternoon or on an overcast day, into a bed that has been watered the day before. Plant each seedling to the same depth it had in the tray, and firm the soil round the root ball. Water in straight away, then water again the next morning if the soil is dry. Cabbage that is planted deep rots at the crown, and cabbage planted too shallow falls over in the wind.
Spacing sets the size of the head. A spacing of 60 cm between rows and 45 cm within the row, about 37,000 plants on a hectare, suits medium to large heads. A closer spacing of 45 by 45 cm, about 49,000 plants, gives smaller heads that many local buyers want for small families and chop bars. Pick the spacing for your market, not just the one that fits the land.
Rotation is the long-term control for the soil diseases. Do not plant cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale or other brassicas on the same ground in consecutive seasons. Clubroot resting spores can stay in the soil for many years, so a clean rotation of two to three seasons, with a non-brassica crop in between, is the most useful thing you can do. The cabbage bed is also a good place to add compost, which keeps the soil structure open and helps the crop hold water. When the rotation comes round, an onion or shallot bed is a sound choice for the ground, as our onion and shallot guide explains.
Nitrogen, lime and the boron that stops hollow stems
Cabbage is a heavy feeder, and nitrogen drives the leaves that feed the head. Well-rotted poultry manure or compost worked into the bed before planting gives it a good start, and a split application of nitrogen during the first six weeks carries the head through. Overfeeding late in the crop softens the heads and makes them crack in the field, so stop the top dressing once the heads begin to form.
Soil pH is worth checking before you plant. Clubroot is a disease that prefers acid soils, and liming to a near-neutral reaction makes the disease much less damaging. Ghanaian soils are often acidic, so get a test from your MoFA office or the nearest research station and apply lime at the rate the test gives you, well before planting so it has time to react.
Boron and calcium matter too. Boron shortage causes brown heart, where the inside of the stem and head turns brown and corky, and it is more common on light, sandy soils and after heavy liming. Ask your extension officer whether your soil is short of boron, and if it is, follow their advice on a suitable micronutrient. Do not guess, because too much boron is as damaging as too little.
Keep the bed clean of weeds for the first month, since weeds take the nitrogen and crowd the young plants. After that, the wide leaves of the crop shade out most of the weeds, and you can concentrate on the pests.
Watering that keeps heads from splitting
Cabbage needs steady water to build a dense head. In hot weather, a bed generally needs something in the region of 25 mm of water a week, applied in two or three sessions so the soil stays moist without standing water. Sandy soil needs more often, clay needs less but with more care about drainage. A drip line or a bucket-and-basin system lets you water at the root without wetting the leaves, which reduces the chance of leaf diseases.
The biggest mistake is a dry spell followed by a deluge. The head grows quickly after heavy rain, and the outer layers split as the inside pushes out. Splitting leaves the head open to soft rot and to the market rejects, so keep the watering regular and time your irrigation so the bed is never dry for long, then soaked.
Mulch the bed with dry grass or a thin layer of rice husk. It keeps the soil temperature down in the heat and prevents soil splashing onto the lower leaves, where it carries soft rot organisms into the head. The same discipline of even watering governs our pepper and chilli guide, and the fruiting crops there suffer in the same way when the bed swings between wet and dry.
Diamondback moth: the pest that outruns a late spray
Diamondback moth is the pest that decides most cabbage crops in Ghana. The adult is a small, greyish moth that lays eggs on the leaves, and the larvae that hatch are small green caterpillars that eat into the leaf from the underside, often leaving a window of skin behind. Larvae also burrow into the heart of the head, where they are hard to see and easy to miss until the head is cut. A bed can go from clean to damaged in a week when the moths are active.
The reason so many growers lose the battle is timing. Diamondback moth has developed resistance to many insecticides in parts of the world, and a spray that is applied after the damage is done kills the caterpillars that did the work and not the eggs that will hatch next. The practical answer is to scout early and often, start looking from the first week after transplanting, and use the products that the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate has registered for cabbage in Ghana.
Biological options such as products based on Bacillus thuringiensis are used by many growers to control caterpillars, and they fit well with a scouting programme. Check that a product is registered in Ghana and follow the label, including the waiting period before harvest, and rotate between different modes of action if you have to spray more than once. Where the damage is unclear, send a sample to your extension office, since several caterpillars leave much the same leaf damage. Our tomato guide covers the caterpillars that attack fruiting crops, which overlap with some of the same scouting habits.
Pull and bin any heads that are heavily tunnelled by larvae, rather than leaving them in the field to produce the next generation. Clean up outer leaves after harvest, too, since they shelter pupae.
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Aphids, cutworms and the bugs that hide in the heart
Cabbage aphids are grey-green and waxy. They gather in colonies on the leaves and move into the centre of the head, where they are hard to reach and easy to carry to the market without anyone noticing. A heavy aphid attack distorts the new leaves, stunts the head and leaves sticky honeydew that attracts sooty mould. Check the inner leaves of ten plants each week, especially in the hot, dry spells, and act when the colonies first show up rather than when the leaves are sticky.
Cutworms are the other pest of the young crop. They cut the stem just above or at ground level, often overnight, and a bed can lose a row of transplants in one night. Look for the fresh cut and dig gently round the base with a stick to find the caterpillar, which curls up in the soil nearby. Put a collar of paper or a small cup of soil around each transplant for the first two weeks, and remove weeds from the bed edge where the moths lay eggs.
Flea beetles chew many tiny holes in young leaves and can damage a whole nursery in a warm week. Keep the nursery shaded and watered, and check it each morning. Heavy beetle pressure weakens the seedlings enough to make them slow to heart up in the field.
Clubroot, black rot and the soft rot inside the head
Diseases of cabbage follow the seed, the soil and the wet. The table below is a quick guide to the problems you are most likely to meet and the first response for each. It is not a diagnosis, so ask your extension officer when you are unsure.
| Problem | What you see | First response |
|---|---|---|
| Clubroot | Swollen, distorted roots and plants that wilt in the afternoon | Lime the soil, rotate brassicas out, remove and bin infected plants |
| Black rot | V-shaped yellow lesions from the leaf margin, blackened veins | Use clean seed and transplants, avoid overhead splashing, rotate |
| Soft rot | Foul, watery breakdown inside the head or at the stem base | Harvest promptly, avoid wounds, keep the field drained |
| Downy mildew | Pale patches on top of leaves with grey growth below in cool, wet weather | Improve airflow, water in the morning, remove worst leaves |
| Brown heart | Brown, corky tissue inside the stem and head | Test soil for boron and follow the advice you are given |
Clubroot is the disease with the longest memory. The resting spores in the soil infect the roots of brassicas and make them swell into knobbly galls, which stop the plant taking up water. The plant wilts in the afternoon and may recover at night, then fail for good. Liming, a long rotation and clean transplants are the three things that keep it out of the field. There is no chemical cure that a small grower can rely on.
Black rot starts in the seed or on the transplants and then spreads through splashing water. The V-shaped yellow lesions on the leaf margins are the sign, and the veins can blacken as the lesion moves inwards. A bed with black rot in the seedlings should be cleared and replanted with clean material, and the seedbed should be moved to a fresh site.
Soft rot is a bacterial problem that enters through wounds, insect damage and split heads. Once it is inside a head, it cannot be saved, so the remedy is to prevent wounds and to cut and cool the heads quickly after harvest.
Cutting heads and getting them to a buyer while they are firm
Cut the head when it feels firm and solid when you squeeze it, and before the outer leaves start to split or the head begins to loosen. The timing depends on the variety and the weather. In most fields, heads are ready about two to three months after transplanting, and a spell of hot weather can bring them on suddenly. Look at the bed every few days in the last three weeks, rather than waiting for a set date.
Cut each head with a clean, sharp knife, leaving a few wrapper leaves to protect it, and trim the stem to a short stump. Cut in the early morning if you can, when the head is cool and turgid. Pack heads in crates or clean sacks in a single layer, with the wrapper leaves on, and move them into shade straight away. A head left in the sun for an afternoon loses weight and bloom, and buyers notice the difference.
Cabbage sells whole, by the head or by weight, and some buyers take a smaller head for chopping in bulk. Hotels, chop bars and fast-food kitchens want a steady supply of uniform heads, while households want a head they can use the same day. Market demand peaks around the festive seasons, when coleslaw, salads and stews use more cabbage, and local traders buy in volume. Check current rates in your own market on the day you sell, rather than relying on a figure from a neighbour or a past season.
Keep the crop cool between harvest and sale. A cabbage that is cut, trimmed and kept in the shade will last a good while, but one that sits in a hot yard for two days will collapse. Grade each lot by size and remove split or damaged heads, which you can sell at a discount or use at home.
A checklist from seed to sale for cabbage
Run through these steps in order each season. Missing the early ones is the usual reason a cabbage bed fails in the middle of its life.
- Choose a hybrid variety for your zone and buy seed in sealed packets with a lot number.
- Test the soil, and apply lime well before planting if the pH is low.
- Sow the nursery in a clean, shaded seedbed or tray and check it every morning.
- Harden the transplants for three to four days, then set them out at 60 by 45 cm.
- Put a collar round each transplant for the first two weeks against cutworms.
- Water in regular sessions, and mulch to keep soil moisture even.
- Scout for diamondback moth and aphids from the first week in the field.
- Remove and bin heavily damaged plants, and any with clubroot swellings or black rot lesions.
- Cut heads when firm, early in the day, and keep them in shade.
- Write down the transplant date, the first head and the sale, so next season starts with facts.
Cabbage waste does have a place on a mixed farm. Trimmings and outer leaves go into the compost heap, and the finished compost goes back onto the next bed. Our guide to using poultry manure as fertiliser in Ghana explains how to combine manure and compost for a brassica bed, and the composting article covers building the heap.
If you are planning birds alongside the cabbage bed, our day-old chicks for Ghana page covers the breeds and the order process, and the current chick prices are listed there too. Call or WhatsApp +233 24 915 1503 to speak to us, or send a note to support@halaalfarms.com. The order section on the homepage is the quickest route for chick orders. Farmers who want to plan a larger mixed holding can start with our partner page.
Questions farmers ask
Why does my cabbage form loose heads or no head at all?
Heat is the usual cause. Cabbage needs cool nights to build a firm head, and a hot spell can make the plant bolt or stop heading. Other causes include transplants that were too old or too young, poor nitrogen supply, and irregular water. Plant for the cooler months or on cooler ground, transplant at four to five weeks, and keep the water even through head formation.
Which cabbage variety should I grow in Ghana?
Most growers choose an F1 hybrid suited to their zone, because hybrids give uniform heads and reliable yields. Early types give a faster return, and mid-season types hold the field longer in good weather. Ask your seed supplier and your MoFA or research station contact which types have been tested locally, and buy seed in sealed packets with a lot number so you can trace problems.
How far apart should cabbage be planted?
A spacing of 60 by 45 cm, about 37,000 plants a hectare, suits medium to large heads. A closer 45 by 45 cm spacing, around 49,000 plants, gives smaller heads. Choose the spacing that matches your buyers. Wider spacing gives bigger heads but fewer per square metre, and closer spacing raises humidity, which encourages downy mildew and leaf spot.
Can I plant cabbage after kale, broccoli or cauliflower?
Not in the next season. All of them are brassicas and share clubroot and black rot. A rotation of two to three seasons with a non-brassica crop in between is the usual target. Lime the soil, add compost and watch the bed closely for swollen roots, since clubroot resting spores can persist for years in the soil.
Why do my cabbage heads split after rain?
Splitting happens when the head takes in water quickly after a dry spell, so the inside grows faster than the outer leaves can stretch. Keep watering regular, mulch the bed, and harvest heads when they are firm rather than leaving them to swell. Heads that split can still be sold quickly, but they lose their shelf life and buyers will reject them.
Is it safe to feed cabbage leaves to chickens?
Small amounts of clean, fresh cabbage leaves are a traditional treat for birds, but they should not replace a balanced ration. Large amounts can make the droppings loose and add bulk without much protein or energy. Remove any rotten or heavily damaged leaves, and compost the rest rather than feeding it in quantity.
What is brown heart and how do I prevent it?
Brown heart is a boron deficiency that makes the inside of the stem and head turn brown and corky. It is more common on light sandy soils and after heavy liming. The fix is to test the soil and follow your extension officer's advice on boron. Do not add boron by guesswork, because too much is also harmful to the crop.
