Cabbage is a vegetable native to China with a long history of cultivation. According to the evidence, in China's Neolithic period in Xi'an half slope primitive village site found cabbage seeds about 6000 years -7000 years ago. Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty quoted Lu Dian "Bei Ya" said, "woad, Ling winter late withering, common in all seasons, there is a pine drill, so it is called woad, now commonly known as cabbage." [1]

Cabbage was introduced to Japan, Europe and America in the 19th century. Today there are many types of cabbage, the northern cabbage are Shandong Jiaozhou cabbage, Beijing Qingbai, Northeast big short cabbage, Shanxi Yangcheng's big hairy side and so on. The southern cabbages were introduced from the north, and their varieties are Ujinbai, Silkworm Cabbage, Cockscomb White, and Xueliqing, all of which are excellent varieties.

Cabbage is the main vegetable in winter and spring in Northeast and North China. The leaves can be fried, eaten raw, salted, pickled, boiled, and the outer layer of leaves can be used as fodder.

Morphological features

Cabbage is a biennial herb, 40-60 cm high, cabbage, cabbage, the whole plant is slightly white powder, glabrous, sometimes a few prickly hairs on the midvein below the leaf. [4]

Cabbage in section

Basal leaves are large, obovate-oblong to obovate, 30-60 cm long, rounded at the tip, with a crinkled, undulate, sometimes inconspicuously dentate margin, midvein white, very broad; with numerous stout lateral veins, petiole white, flattened, 5-9 cm long, 2-8 cm wide, with a broad, thin, notched wing along the margin; distal cauline leaves oblong-ovate, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-7 cm long, rounded to shortly acute at the tip, entire or with cleft teeth, stalked or clasping, auriculate, pruinose. [4]

Flowers bright yellow, 1.2-1.5 cm in diameter; pedicels 4-6 mm long; sepals oblong or ovate-lanceolate, 4-5 mm long, erect, pale green to yellow; petals obovate, 7-8 mm long, base tapering into a claw. Long-horned fruit stouter and shorter, 3-6 cm long, ca. 3 mm wide, compressed on both sides, erect, beak 4-10 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, rounded at the tip; fruiting pedicels spreading or ascending, 2.5-3 cm long, thicker. Seeds globose, 1-1.5 mm in diameter, brown. Fl. in May, fr. in June.

Origin and habitat

Cabbage was originally distributed in north China and is widely cultivated throughout China[4] .

Cabbage is hardy and prefers cooler climates, so it is suitable for growing in cooler seasons. If it is cultivated in the hot season, it is prone to diseases and insects, or poor quality and low yield, so it is not suitable for cultivation in summer. Its resistance to low temperature is very strong. After the temperature reaches -3℃, if it can gradually warm up, it can also resume growth, but if it reaches -8℃ after the temperature continues to fall to -11℃ or so, it can't resume normal growth and suffers from frost damage. Cabbage is suitable for planting in fertilizer, water and rich in organic matter loam and sandy loam and black and yellow soil, not suitable for planting in sandy soil that is easy to leak water and manure, and even less suitable for planting in poorly drained clay soil.