The amazing cruciferous vegetable, Romanesco cabbage is a recent guest on our garden beds. It was withdrawn only at the end of the twentieth century. This cauliflower hybrid does not differ from it by features of leaving, excepting some nuances. We will talk about them in our article.
Botanical description
A distinctive feature of this unique plant is the shape and location of the inflorescences. They look like pyramids of bright green color tightly pressed to each other. Cabbage inflorescences are compared to a fractal spiral, since each of its buds is composed of many small buds of the same shape.
Cabbage Romanesco relatively recently appeared on domestic markets. Kohlrabi, broccoli, white cabbage, Beijing, Savoyard, red cabbage, cauliflower and Kale cabbage confidently hold their positions.
Inflorescences are surrounded by large blue-green leaves. Depending on growing conditions and variety, this cabbage can reach a height of one meter by autumn, and also have fruits up to half a kilogram of weight. Such dimensions do not depend on the time of planting.
Did you know? The cabbage Romanesco was officially bred in Italy in the 1990s. Although according to some unofficial data, it was already known in the Roman Empire: the word "romanesco" in Italian means "Roman"."Romanesco" refers to cultivated varieties of cabbage, namely, it is in the cultivar group "Botrytis", like cauliflower.
Landing place
Cabbage "Romanesco" requires a certain place for growing, we will discuss this later. Grow this culture seed or seedlings. Off-site method, as a rule, is used in southern latitudes. In other cases, it is better to grow seedlings.
The best predecessors
An important point in choosing a place for planting this plant is what kind of culture has grown on this place before. If the site grew tomatoes, legumes, onions, beets, cucumbers and potatoes - this is a good place to plant cabbage "Romanesco". At the same time, it is not necessary to plant this plant in the soil, if before that radish, cabbage, turnip, radish, rutabaga grew on this place. 
Lighting and location
Since during the cultivation of this plant in the soil bacteria appear, in one place it should not grow more than three years in a row. At the same place it is recommended to transplant "Romanesco" cabbage after five years. It is recommended to plant in well-lit wet places. Moisture is especially important when inflorescences form in a plant.
The soil
The soil should be normally acidic, consisting of black soil or loam. Very likes this plant alkaline soil. In the early spring period, it is necessary to feed the soil with dolomite flour or wood ash (200-400 g per square meter).
Mineral and organic fertilizers soil fertilized in the fall before digging the ground. Well this culture will respond to compost introduced into the ground.
Sowing Cabbage Seeds
End of april - the most suitable period for planting seeds "Romanesko" on seedlings. Planting is not much different from the technology of planting cauliflower. 
Conditions for growing seedlings
The most important thing in planting this crop is to create the most suitable temperature regime for it. In the room where the seedlings are planted, until the first shoots appear, the air temperature should not exceed +20 ° С. One month after the seedlings are formed, the ambient temperature must be reduced by 10 ° C so that it does not exceed 8 ° C at night. This can be achieved by moving containers with seedlings on the balcony.
Important! When planting these plants, the most important thing to watch out for is the air temperature. Wrong temperature levels all your efforts to grow crops.
Sowing scheme
At the site of planting seeds of cabbage "Romanesko" or seedlings must be placed 60 cm apart. There should be a gap of about 50 cm between the rows.
Seedling care
During the growth of seedlings seedlings should be watered regularly, adjust the lighting of plants, because in very strong light they quickly stretch the stems. Seedlings with proper care should come out strong and low, with good strong roots; in addition, it must endure adverse conditions.
Important! This plant is a rich source of B vitamins, vitamin C, and, among other things, contains zinc, minerals and carotene.
Landing in open ground
Seedlings need to be planted in open ground, depending on what the cabbage is intended for, what kind of precocity at the variety and what climatic conditions in your latitudes.
Gardeners recommend planting "Romanesco" cabbage by hand, and machine landing is also possible. It is necessary to take into account what kind of irrigation scheme you will have - in the wells or using a drip irrigation system. Seedlings should be planted 45-60 days after you have sown the seeds.
Peculiarities of care
Ordinary cauliflower does not require particularly complex personal care, and the close variety of Romanesco is not very different from it. When performing some mandatory procedures, your plants will give a good harvest.
Cabbage "Romanesco" need water regularly, but at the same time, do not allow the soil to dry out or marsh. Check shrubs for pests such as caterpillars or cabbage moths. Clean the garden bed of weeds.
Watering
From the quality of watering the plant directly depends on its yield and the formation of inflorescences, as the variety "Romanesco" loves moisture very much. If you do not water "Romanesco" in sufficient quantity, the inflorescences will not be tied at all. Also, drought will affect the formation of the outlet and head.
Top dressing
Plants also need to be properly administered. You can get just a bush of cabbage leaves, and do not get a harvest at all if fertilizer is applied too late or in too large a volume. During the season this crop is fertilized three times.. A week after you planted the seedlings, feed the plant for the first time.
In ten liters of water mix half a pound of mullein or bird droppings, add 20 g of complex mineral fertilizers. The second time it is necessary to fertilize the soil two weeks after the first time. Stir in ten liters of water and a half tablespoons of ammonium nitrate, two tablespoons of superphosphate, two grams of boric acid and the same amount of potassium chloride.
The third time you need to feed "Romanesco" after the start of tying the heads. The fertilizer recipe is similar to the previous ones: ten liters of water, half a kilogram of bird droppings or mullein, one and a half tablespoons of superphosphate, the same amount of ammonium nitrate, one tablespoon of potassium chloride. After that, the plant will not need additional feeding.
Soil care
Like cauliflower, this variety does not like sour soil, for this reason it is necessary to chill sour earth in autumn. Also, the land should be prepared in the spring - scatter a couple of buckets of rotted compost or manure into a square meter bed under cabbage. Complex boric fertilizers are added to the fertilizer mixture, and components such as molybdenum and copper must also be present in them.
Did you know? This cabbage got such a non-standard look not by chance, breeders took it out just like this, that is, similar to a fractal.
Pests and diseases
In the variety "Romanesco", among other things, similar to cauliflower pests and diseases. Mucous bacteriosis It happens from a violation of the watering system for cabbage. On its flowers appear watery stains that begin to rot. To get rid of the disease, you should carefully cut wet stains with a knife. If it is not possible to get rid of all stains, the plant must be picked and burned. 
Disease "blackleg" manifested by blackening the stems of seedlings. The plant dies. It is difficult to get rid of this disease - it is necessary to disinfect the soil, process the seeds, disinfect the seedlings from the bacteria. Infected bushes should be destroyed immediately.
With the disease "mosaic"that is transmitted by a virus, spots of various shapes appear on the leaves of the bush. The leaves become dull and die. Since this disease is not treatable, it is necessary to combat pests that carry the virus.
With alternariose brown spots appear on the leaves, the edges of the leaves themselves become dark. Concentric circles also appear on the bushes affected by the fungus. To protect the plants from this fungus, it is necessary to process seedlings and seeds with special means. It is also useful to treat plants with Bordeaux mixture.
Like cauliflower, variety "Romanesco" such pests are dangerous: cabbage fly, cruciferous flea, cabbage aphid, covertly covert, cabbage tree. The timely processing of plants with the help of numerous insecticides helps to fight them.
Harvest
Exotic Italian Cabbage should be collected in the middle of autumn. During this period, on it are fully formed tight, star-like inflorescences. The harvest must be collected on time, otherwise the cabbage heads will lose their juiciness and tenderness. It is stored in the refrigerator for up to one week, but if it is frozen, then, without losing its qualities, it will be stored for a much longer time.
This variety of cabbage is not so difficult to grow, besides it is very useful, is used in various dishes and will become a real fractal decoration for your garden.
