Cabbage 'Golden Acre' Organic

Golden Acre is an excellent early summer variety, ball head cabbage. With small to medium-sized green, round solid heads on compact plants with few outer leaves.
Ideal for confined areas, it can be grown at 30cm spacings and give excellent small heads of first rate quality and flavour. The heads are tightly folded, solid, 12 to 18cm (5 to 7in) in diameter, round, grey-green in colour and weigh three to five pounds. Matures in 64 days. It is not a long standing variety but is Yellows resistant

Golden Acre is an old heirloom variety, earliest references are in 1927 seed catalogues where they say…
“A first early type This Danish variety is highly praised by all who have grown it.” By 1950 it was called... “The most popular variety for home and garden planting.”

Sow early cabbage indoors in March for transplanting from April to June. Cabbage is relatively hardy, so you can move them outdoors 3 to 4 weeks before the last average frost date after sowing 4 to 6 weeks earlier. Set them out as transplants in late March, or direct sow them from April to the end of June. The premise is to provide a warm atmosphere for germination, and then a cool climate for growing on.
Early cabbages for summer harvests grow quickly, to a smaller size in tighter spacing. They need the best soil and the most protection from insects but produce the most delicate heads. Protect your cabbage row from the caterpillar of the cabbage moth by draping lightweight row cover over the plants. Summer varieties don’t handle cold very well, so be sure to harvest them when they are ready, and well before frost.

• Organic Seed.
  This seed has been organically produced. The seed has been harvested from plants that have themselves been grown to recognised organic standards, without the use of chemicals. No treatments have been used, either before or after harvest and the seed is supplied in its natural state. It has been certified and is labelled with the Organic symbol.

Prepare the site:
All brassica crops grow best in partial-shade, in firm, fertile, free-draining soil. Start digging over your soil as soon as you can brave the elements. Remove any stones you find and work in plenty of well-rotted manure or compost. Tread on the soil to remove air pockets and to make the surface firm. Brassicas will fail if the soil is too acidic; add lime to the soil if necessary, aiming for a pH of 6.5 to 7.5.

Sowing: Sow successionally from February to July
Nearly all brassicas should be planted in a seedbed or in modules under glass and then transferred. Seeds should be sown thinly, as this reduces the amount of future thinning necessary and potential risk from pests.
Sow seeds 1.25cm (½in) deep and space 15 to 20cm (6 to 8in) between rows.
Once the seeds have germinated, thin the seedlings to 7.5cm (3in) between each plant. After germination, seedlings will often be ‘leggy’, so plant them as deep as possible to really anchor them into the soil.

Growing:
Cabbage seedlings are ready for transplanting when they are between 6 and 8cm high (2½ to 3in). Water the day before moving, and keep well-watered until established. Plant firmly, close together for small heads and wider apart for larger cabbages, around 30 to 45cm (12 to 18in) apart. Cabbage seedlings are ready for transplanting when they are between 6 and 8cm high (2½ to 3in). Water the day before moving, and keep well-watered until established. Plant firmly, close together for small heads and wider apart for larger cabbages, around 30 to 45cm (12 to 18in) apart.
Clear away any yellow leaves. Feed the plants as they near maturity with a foliar feed.

Harvest: June to August (through to October)
Earliest heads can be cut, leaving the stump in the ground to produce a second crop of small leafy heads.

Tips:
Brassicas are affected by a wide range of pests and diseases, especially the fungal disease, club root. The roots become stubby and swollen and can develop wet rot, while leaves become yellow and wilt, causing severe stunting of growth. Remove any infected plants from the ground and destroy. Make sure the soil is adequately limed and well drained.
Rotate your crops annually to avoid disease. Don't grow brassicas on the same plot more often than one year in three, as moving the crop helps avoid the build up of soil pests and diseases

Companion Plants:
Mint: Effective against Cabbage White Butterflies, Aphids / Flea Beetles
Thyme: To ward off that nasty Cabbage Worm!
Also useful: Sage, Oregano, Borage, chamomile and Nasturtium.

Origin:
In the wild, the Brassica oleracea plant is native to the Mediterranean region of Europe, and is somewhat similar in appearance to a leafy canola plant.
Without detailed knowledge of plant breeding or genetics, simple selection by the people growing the plant over seven thousand years that had the features that they most desired, led to the development of six dramatically different vegetables. Although they appear very different, kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli and brussels sprouts are all the same species, Brassica oleracea.
As time passed, some people began to express a preference for those plants with a tight cluster of tender young leaves in the centre of the plant at the top of the stem. Because of this preference for plants in which there were a large number of tender leaves closely packed into the terminal bud at the top of the stem, these plants were selected and propagated more frequently.
A continued favouritism of these plants for hundreds of successive generations resulted in the gradual formation of a more and more dense cluster of leaves at the top of the plant. Eventually, the cluster of leaves became so large, it tended to dominate the whole plant, and the cabbage "head" we know today was born. This progression is thought to have been complete in the 1st century A.D.

Nomenclature:
Cabbage is known botanically by the name Brassica oleracea variety capitata, which translates to "cabbage of the vegetable garden with a head."
(Kale plants are named Brassica oleracea variety acephala which translates to mean "cabbage of the vegetable garden without a head.")
The genus name Brassica derives from the Celtic ‘bresic’.
The specific epithet oleracea is Latin and is a form of holeraceus (oleraceus), it refers to a vegetable or garden herb that is used in cooking.

Timing:
Cabbages are classified into three different groups, all cabbages are grown in exactly the same way, just the sowing times vary:
Summer cabbages: - Can either be sown early from late February/early March under cloches or similar cover, or sow outdoors from April to early May.
Winter cabbages: - Sow in April to May; transplant in late June to July. ​
Spring cabbages: - Sow in July to August; transplant in September to October.