Why won't my cabbages heart up?

Oh, I thought it was just this year's late lot as for a lot of us, I blame the no summer.

But generally is different. :shock:  They are said not to heart up in shade and kalium sulphate can help with hearting, have no other idea. Never before had the problem , so do not know if it does work, but worth a try.

Excuse me, I had my say already.

Could you stop picking on me, please.

I´ve had exactly the same problem, no idea of the variety of cabbage the garden center sold me, they just have cabbage plants! It took my cabbage around 3 months or more to get to the stage where I picked one tonight for tea.  It was tiny, only did the two of us. My neighbour, who bought the same cabbage plants (I took him to the garden centre with me) had a great crop, picked and eaten a good month and a half if not longer ago. The neighbour said it was due to my soil not being fertilised.  
Last year I grew my own plants, can´t remember the name, all I know is they were resistant to club root.  They were brilliant. Hope your cabbage heart up soon. Being as cabbage is the best veg ever not to get a decent plant is not good :cry:  :x  
Pamela

I grew cabbages for the first time last year and had a good crop with Protovoy the small savoys (only two of use to use veg).  I was so pleased with the results I sowed spring cabbage Offenham2 however I am very disappointed as I have just a few loose leaves and no hearts to them.

Thanks for all of that.

Here are some more details. My plot is in north Hampshire where we are on chalk about 18" down. Lime is not usually an issue, and hence club root neither.

I couldn't specifically say that these cabbage plots have been manured, but I have been adding mushroom compost to the beans area every year, and that has plenty of rotted horse manure and lime in it.

The plot faces south and has no shade at all.

Windrock could be a problem, they are enclosed in a pen made of scaffold netting to keep butterflies off. This is very closely woven, and should provide some shelter, but who knows.

I guess the only other thing to say is that the first piece of advice I saw on this site some years ago, was 'ask around your neighbors' and I notice that only two others out of 37 plots have any cabbages. Maybe I need to get friendly.

Getting friendly, never hurts. Please let us know if you find out something interesting and conlusive.

Just out of interest, are the rest of your brassica plants successful, especially cauliflower?

I have had good results with brassicas on my undug plot. I bung them in previously undug soil, just making a hole with a bulb planter and I think the firmness of the surrounding soil suits them. Me Minicoles were huge