Wild Cabbage

How to grow Wild Cabbage

Written by the GardenDecoded editorial team · Last reviewed 21 July 2026 · Written for UK gardens · How we research our guidance

Planting

Sow in a seedbed or modules and transplant when the plants have four or five true leaves, setting them deep to the lowest leaves. Brassicas need firm ground: tread the bed before planting and firm hard around each plant. Spacing depends on type, from 30 cm for a small cabbage to 75 cm for Brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli.

Pruning

Remove yellowing lower leaves through the season to reduce slug shelter and disease. Stake tall winter brassicas such as sprouts and sprouting broccoli in autumn — wind rock loosens the roots and ruins the crop.

Propagation

From seed each year. Saving your own is impractical for most gardeners, as the different types cross freely with one another.

Pests and diseases

Cabbage white caterpillars, whitefly, aphids, flea beetle and pigeons all attack brassicas — fine mesh netting over hoops from the day of planting solves most of it at once. Clubroot is the serious soil-borne disease, causing swollen distorted roots and stunted plants; it persists for decades, so lime the ground, improve drainage, raise plants in large pots before planting out, and use resistant varieties on affected land.

Notes

Rotate brassicas on at least a four-year cycle. Do not let the netting rest on the leaves, or butterflies will lay through it. Kale and sprouts both taste better after a frost or two.

This guidance was researched and written by GardenDecoded — see our editorial policy for how guides are checked and reviewed.

Other names for this plant

These names have all been used for Brassica oleracea but are no longer the accepted name. You may still meet them on old labels, in books, or in nursery catalogues.

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