Have you ever tried a freshly harvested kohlrabi raw? The taste of this vegetable is captivatingly juicy, fresh and spicy and the fiber, vitamins and minerals it contains support your he alth. Good news: Growing kohlrabi is easy. Even a beginner.
How to plant kohlrabi successfully?
Planting kohlrabi is possible by growing it in 4-5 cm pots from the end of February or sowing directly outdoors from the end of April. What is important is sufficient planting distance (20-30 cm), uniform watering and nutrient supply, as well as a varied bed neighborhood.
Interesting facts about tuber vegetables
The origin of kohlrabi is obscure. The first cultivated areas were in Central Asia and the Mediterranean. Kohlrabi only appeared in European herb books in the 16th century. It has been cultivated especially in German-speaking countries since the 19th century and is considered a typically German vegetable.
Kohlrabi not only tastes good, the vegetable is low in calories and rich in he althy ingredients: Kohlrabi contains a lot of vitamin C and carotenoids in the leaves, which are converted into vitamin A by the body. Kohlrabi is also rich in magnesium, potassium, calcium and iron. Anthocyanins can be found in the blue varieties - these substances reduce the risk of heart and circulatory diseases.
Soil preparation: all-round feel-good package for your kohlrabi in the garden bed
Although kohlrabi doesn't have particularly high demands on soil quality, you should prepare the bed in autumn for growing the delicious tubers. Mix the soil with plenty of ripe compost and if you can get cow or horse manure, work it in. The bed then has to rest over the winter before your kohlrabi plants take over it. The nutrient content of the soil created in this way is optimal for the medium-intensive kohlrabi.
Kohlrabi look and weight
Kohlrabi is actually a biennial plant. In the first year it forms a thickened shoot axis. Because this is harvested, he no longer gets the chance to show what else is inside him. In the second year, if you let it, it produces branched inflorescences. The plant has elongated, long-stemmed leaves that you can also use as leafy vegetables or raw in salads.
The kohlrabi absorbs its nutrients through the taproot. Depending on the variety, kohlrabi tubers can reach a diameter of 5 to 20 cm and weigh 100 g to an impressive 8 kg: enough vegetables for a large family including the hungry neighborhood stomachs. The tubers are elongated or round in shape. However, if you space your kohlrabi plants too closely, your kohlrabi harvest may turn out to be cylindrical: a result of the lack of light.
Blue and white kohlrabi varieties
About 54 varieties of kohlrabi are grown in Germany: 40 white kohlrabi varieties - only 14 varieties have a blue skin. If you have the ambition to harvest massively large kohlrabi, plant seeds of the (white) giant or (blue) super melt varieties. By the way, the white varieties ripen faster than the blue ones.
Prefer kohlrabi, sowing and planting times
Kohlrabi is one of the quick starters among vegetables. There are only 12 to 20 weeks between sowing and harvesting - depending on the variety and location.
Prefer kohlrabi
Pots with a diameter of 4 – 5 cm are ideal for growing kohlrabi. It needs a bright and warm location to germinate. Temperatures between 12 and 16°C are optimal. If the plants are a little larger (3 - 4 leaves) they can also be kept cooler. You can start growing on the windowsill, in the greenhouse or in the cold frame from the end of February. It is also important that you keep the plants evenly moist.
Sowing outdoors
From the end of April you can sow the vegetables directly outdoors. To do this, make grooves about 1 cm deep and put the seeds in them. Make sure there is sufficient distance. If the plants are larger, you can thin them out like this. There should be at least 20 cm between plants. If you sow kohlrabi later (this is possible until mid-July), the plants need more space. Then you should keep a distance of at least 30 cm.
Planting out kohlrabi
April is the right time to plant the early small kohlrabi in the outdoor bed. If you don't feel like it or don't have enough space to grow the plants yourself, you can of course also buy pre-grown kohlrabi plants from the gardener and then plant them outdoors straight away. If there are still frost nights, you should cover the culture with fleece. The plants can survive the cold for a short time, but will give up their weapons when it really freezes. In order to cover your need for the delicious vegetables over the summer, you can sow outdoors every 2 weeks. You can almost see kohlrabi growing so quickly.
The neighborhood thing
Kohlrabi is a type of cabbage and therefore belongs to the cruciferous family. All types of cabbage are quite susceptible to pest attacks - for example the cabbage white fly, the cabbage white butterfly or flea beetles - or other cabbage diseases such as clubroot. If you cultivate too many plants of the same family in one location, the risk of pests settling in and/or the plants becoming sick increases.
You can hope for a lush kohlrabi harvest if you place your kohlrabi plants next to bush beans, radishes or together with marigolds and marigolds in the bed. Kohlrabi also goes well with cucumbers, potatoes, peas, leeks, radishes, celery, tomatoes and onions. Lettuce, radish, beetroot, salsify and runner beans also harmonize with kohlrabi.
Caring for and harvesting kohlrabi
For magnificent kohlrabi tubers, it is important that there are no major fluctuations in the moisture balance. Your kohlrabi need water every day, especially in summer. Otherwise there is a risk that the tubers will crack or become woody. If you sow the early varieties directly outdoors, it is advisable to increase the nutrient content of the soil with horn meal or nettle manure. A little but continuously is tolerable here for a good harvest.
Kohlrabi harvesting and storage
You shouldn't let early kohlrabi varieties get so big. When they are even smaller, they taste particularly spicy and are very tender. If you want to harvest your kohlrabi, cut it off just below the bulb. Early varieties only last about 2 weeks. You can easily store the late varieties in a cool cellar for several weeks and use them as needed.
Tips & Tricks
• If there are pest infestations or diseases, the plants belong in the trash - under no circumstances in the compost
• Do not plant kohlrabi too shallowly or too deeply: otherwise they will not be stable or the tuber will come into contact with the ground and could rot.
• Once you have harvested kohlrabi, you should not grow cabbage there for the next 3 – 4 years. The soil needs to recover and there is an increased risk of pest infestation and disease.
• If there is a lack of nutrients or too little water, kohlrabi begins to bloom: no tuber is formed.
• You can make optimal use of the full range of kohlrabi ingredients if you cook the kohlrabi whole and only then peel it.