African Cabbage for Soil Conservation and Nematode Control
Keith and Dale walk through African cabbage in the test plots and explain why this tall brassica works better for erosion control than grazing. You'll learn about its high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, nematode-fighting properties, and how it holds structure through winter.
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0:00 [Music]
0:14 Here we have African cabbage. This particular brassica is also flowering, so it is a little bit like the radish in that it's sensing day length.
0:25 Because the days are getting longer it has bolted and it has flowered and Dale, I don't know that I've ever seen African cabbage flower and bolt this uniformly. We always get a little bit, but I don't know, just the weather.
0:37 Conditions, this is really really nice. African cabbage, as you can tell, is going to be a taller plant. It's one of the taller brassicas that we have. It's got a distinctive purple.
0:51 Hue down the down the stems and as you can see as Dale has there now one of the things that we really like about cabbage and especially when you plant it a little later and it doesn't go reproductive like this not only does it get tall but for a
1:04 Brassica really has a high carbon to nitrogen ratio, and so when it freezes out in the fall you're not going to see this stuff just melt away like a turnip or radish. It's going to stay standing tall—it's got good structure, it's a good snow.
1:18 Catching plant for in the winter time so you know we like the African cabbage for that reason. Now it's probably not quite as palatable as some of the other brassicas, it is very high in a chemical compound called.
1:32 Glucosinolates give it a really very bitter, almost horseradish type flavor. But it's also what gives it some very good pneumaticide properties. So those glucosinolates…
1:59 Brassicas, the leaf stem ratio. This amongst all brassicas probably has the lowest leaf to stem ratio and that makes it less valuable as a grazing plant but this.
2:12 This stem becomes kind of semi woody over the winter, so it does provide some residue, some snow catch instead of just melting away. Provides a little cover for erosion control, doesn't just melt away to nothing over the winter.
2:31 That poor leaf stem ratio which makes it bad for grazing makes it good for soil conservation. Right, so that's why you just have to kind of get to know your brassicas so you know which one to use.
2:44 Where and again it's not necessarily bad to have something like this in a grazing mix where it may not be preferentially grazed because you do want some stuff standing out there even after the cattle have kind of taken what they want. Right, they'll strip the leaves off but leave this central stock for resin.