Last edited on November 01, 2026. View history
Dalmatian Cabbage
A variety of cabbage
How to sow Dalmatian cabbage: Direct seed indoors, transplant seedlings outside after hardening off.
Sun requirement for Dalmatian cabbage: Plant in Full Sun
An open-leaf, loose-leafed cabbage that was once widespread in the north of New Zealand, with all the leaves in the sun. The leaves are picked throughout winter and spring, and traditionally used by Dalmatians for stuffing with mince and beans and baking. Easy to save seed from in the north. Sow in trays in late summer or early spring, prick out at 3 cm and transplant at 6 to 8 cm high at 50 cm diagonal spacing, timed to be fully grown before cold weather in areas with cold winters.
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Dalmatian cabbage facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For Dalmatian cabbage, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 750 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Dalmatian cabbage will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing Dalmatian cabbages
- Sow seeds in trays 5 weeks before planting out
- Dig compost into the bed 1 week before planting out
- Harden off the seedlings 1 week before planting out
- Firm the soil well around the stems at planting out
- Net against cabbage white butterflies at planting out
- Set or refill beer traps for slugs and snails at planting out every week
- Water regularly at planting out every week
- Check leaves for caterpillars 2 weeks after planting out every week
- Feed with a nitrogen fertiliser 4 weeks after planting out
- Cut heads once they feel firm at first harvest
- Pull out the stalks 4 weeks after first harvest
Plant Dalmatian cabbages with
cumin
blue lake bean
Video
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 60 to 200 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Brassica oleracea var. capitata L. [Alef.]
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Capparales Cruciferae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -10 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | biennial |
| Habit | acaulescent (or rosette plants) |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
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