Ethiopian Cabbage

[PoorSand]

I've seen Ethiopian Cabbage mentioned a few times on here. For those of you who have grown it, what are your thoughts? What was your soil type? In what season did you plant it? How would you rate it against other brassicas?

For those of you who have never heard of it before, there is a scant description of it here: https://alseed.com/product/ethiopian-cabbage/

 

[Westwind]

Clay, around the 4th of July, my deer didn’t use it, plant a more traditional brassica mix if you intend for the deer to eat it vs it being in a soil builder mix.

 

[bwoods11]

I’m guessing it’s drought tolerant?

 

[White Birch Farm]

Plenty of info available about it on-line. It is a short maturity brassica. If you read people saying it does not get eaten, first they probably are using it wrong (if you want it really consumed heavily and quickly in late season it needs to be planted very late), second, the leaves were probably getting eaten and they just did not notice because they focused on how much stem it produces when it gets past its optimal maturity date for forage.

Of course one of its best characteristics is its ability to be used in a brassica mix to create a screen to break up plots. So, planting earlier than optimal and not having it eaten to ground is actually one of the best uses of it because it wont shade out other longer duration brassicas in the mix like swedes, radish, kale, turnip, etc.


“Ethiopian cabbage - It is a fast growing, drought tolerant brassica that matures in 45-60 days. It can be planted as a warm season brassica source but then it will mature and lose quality. It should be planted as a companion crop.”

 

[Westwind]

White Birch Farm, that growth is crazy!!!!! The Ethiopian cabbage I planted was in Green Cover’s Warm Soil Builder mix and was planted in July so way too early for a food plot brassica in my area.

I shouldn’t have dismissed it so quickly. I had noticed that it isn’t used in their “food plot” blends so I guess I read too much into that.

 

[bigboreblr]

White Birch Farm,

What kind of soil do you have? In generl the soil is pretty fertile? I got a spot the deer don't use a ton that quite sandy and fertility is barren, but on the low side for sure. Without fertilizer for the year, rye gets about 2ft high.

Might be a great ladder for hairy vetch or cowpeas.

How sturdy is it, the deer knock it down easily? Anything to compare it to you've grown.

 

[White Birch Farm]

White Birch Farm, that growth is crazy!!!!! The Ethiopian cabbage I planted was in Green Cover’s Warm Soil Builder mix and was planted in July so way too early for a food plot brassica in my area.

I shouldn’t have dismissed it so quickly. I had noticed that it isn’t used in their “food plot” blends so I guess I read too much into that.

You can plant plenty of Brassicas in early summer, just need to match the duration of the brassica to when you want the deer to be using it.

 

[White Birch Farm]

White Birch Farm,

What kind of soil do you have? In generl the soil is pretty fertile? I got a spot the deer don't use a ton that quite sandy and fertility is barren, but on the low side for sure. Without fertilizer for the year, rye gets about 2ft high.

Might be a great ladder for hairy vetch or cowpeas.

How sturdy is it, the deer knock it down easily? Anything to compare it to you've grown.

The soil was low PH with no fertility when I started, but I have built it up over the years so it is pretty good now.

The cabbage stems are just that, stems. So most will be standing until I mow them. Obviously, any one of them could be pushed down by a deer, but there is thousands of stems in that field.