Kohl Rabi

Growing Guide

Kohl rabi may look like a root vegetable, but it is actually related to cabbage, with a cabbage-like smell and the taste of broccoli stems. This makes it a great alternative to cabbage or turnips. Kohl rabi, which can be green or purple, is a bulbous vegetable surrounded by two layers of stiff leaves attached in a rosette, like a cabbage. It has long leafy greens that shoot out from the top. All parts of the kohl rabi can be eaten, both raw and cooked. It is delicious steamed, sautéed, roasted, stuffed, creamed, in soup or stew, and eaten raw.

Smaller kohl rabi tends to taste sweeter; the vegetable develops a sharper, more radish-like flavor as it matures.

Sow seeds thinly in a well prepared seed bed in shallow drills 1.5cm deep in rows spaced 30cm apart from April. Alternatively beginning in March sow two seeds per cell in modules in a greenhouse.

Sow seed in succession, every 3-4 weeks, to prolong the cropping period.



Outdoor sowings should be thinned out to 15cm apart and grown on to maturity. As soon as greenhouse seedlings show their first pair of leaves thin modules to one seedling per cell. Gradually harden off before planting out to the same spacings as detailed above. Cover seedlings with a protective netting or fleece to prevent attack from birds and insects.

TOP TIPS

Prepare the soil in early spring by adding plenty of well rotted manure to the soil to improve its structure and fertility. Apply lime to acid soils to reduce the acidity and lessen the risk of clubroot.



Water regularly to keep the soil moist at all times. Adequate moisture is essential for the most succulent roots and to minimise woodiness, bitter flesh and bolting. Harvest the bulbs from July to October while they are still tender and range between the size of a golf ball and the size of a tennis ball.