Cabbage wilting

[smokensqueal]

I have a few cabbage plants that I started from seed and transplaned them outside many weeks ago. They looked strong and good then one day one started looking wilted. That one eventually died. Now I have another one that was a bit older then the one that die and last night I noticed it looks wilted. I had a total of 4 plants in this area and one has die now and the other one is looking wilted. It's a new garden area with a mix of topsoil and compost. The other two plants still look strong and healthy. Any ideas what could be causing this?

[BrianSkilton]

Are they getting enough water?

[smokensqueal]

The ground seems to be moist I know we haven't had any dry spells. It seems to been raining a little bit every 3 or 4 days at the longest.

[applestar]

Has it been hot? My cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflowers (as well as the head lettuces) got wilty when the temps hit 80's and 90's. The sun's getting pretty strong now -- we had night time low of 38ºF but during the day, it's up to 72ºF in the shade and POSITIVELY HOT (like 100ºF) in the sun.

I know you said only some are affected and others aren't but maybe some get shade from other plants or the way they're situated in the garden beds?

I mist them and give them a bit of shower with the hose to cool them down. If the whole day's going to be in the mid~upper 80's, I put up a little shade. Babying them along. It's crazy because now we're back to normal spring weather of 70's in the day and 50's during the night.

[rainbowgardener]

Cabbages are cold weather crops that tend to fade out when it gets hot and they also like plenty of water. But if those things aren't a problem (I don't know if you are in one of those areas of the country that are getting rain, rain, rain) and especially given that some of the plants are affected and some not, it may be a disease. One disease of cabbages is fusarium wilt:

Yellow or fusarium wilt is a relatively common disease that causes the leaves of plants to wilt and die. The first sign of the disease is yellowing and browning of the lower leaves. The plants are stunted before wilting occurs. Grow yellows-resistant (YR) or yellows-tolerant varieties. Most modern hybrids have this tolerance or resistance bred into them. https://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/cabbage1.html

here's a little more:
Fusarium wilt can destroy susceptible cultivars of cabbage; cauliflower, broccoli, and brussels sprouts are not known to be affected. Symptoms consist of the yellowing of the lower leaves, often on one side of the plant. These leaves later turn brown and drop off. A brown discoloration of the water-conducting tissues is characteristic of this disease. With time, the entire plant may yellow, wilt, and collapse. Solutions: Once present, this fungus survives indefinitely in the soil. Avoid introducing the pathogen to clean fields. In areas where the fungus is known to occur, plant cabbage in spring or winter, as this fungus develops most rapidly at temperatures ranging from 75° to 85°F https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES/DISEASES/fusariumyellows.html

that site has a picture of what it looks like. Unfortunately if this is the case I don't think there's anything you can do except get rid of them (NOT in the compost pile, unless your pile runs very hot) to keep from infecting the healthy ones.

[smokensqueal]

I'm going to investigate them a bit closer tonight. I also read something about the cabbage worm may cause this same issue. The temp hasn't made it into the 80's yet so I don't think it's the heat and I know it's not the shade because there are no other plants around them. I wouldn't see it being the cabbage worm being that it's in new soil and that they were started from seed but who knows. I'll also look to see if it could be that Fusarium Wilt.

If it still look bad I may try to get some pictures uploaded.

[smokensqueal]

Well it was either the high winds or the heavy rain we had on Wednesday night but my last two cabbage plants in this one box are now looking wilted. I think I may just pull them and make sure there are no worms in the roots and start something new in this box.

I'm wondering if it could be that this is a new box if the top soil I used had little to no nutrients in it and the compost I added just hasn't released much yet.

I may go back to the drawing board for this box (it's only 5ft x 2ft) and just pull the plants and start over and make sure I add a bit of organic mixture of fertilizer for this year so that the compost has time to get worked into the soil better and start to release nutrients.

What else is in the cabbage family that I shouldn't plant in this box since I had problems with cabbage in case there is some thing in the soil that doesn't like the cabbage family.

[applestar]

Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Kohlrabi, Turnip, Rutabaga, Chinese cabbages, radish (Daikon, too), mustard....

[smokensqueal]

Thanks Applestar. I guess no patch of radishes then. That's what I was thinking of. Well may be some bush beans. I think I still have some time for them.

[jabbott8518]

I believe that is caused by Clubroot is a soilborne fungal disease.

[Gary350]

If your growing cabbage in a box the unnatural growing condition may be the problem. I planted cabbage Aug 15 I had to water 3 times a day to make seeds grow but they grew, we have had no rain in 3 months so my plants are leaves only, no heads. We also had a summer that would not quit 90 degree weather until 3 weeks ago then in the 80s all of Nov. it was 81 yesterday and 80 today. Crazy weather, wrong weather for cabbage.