Kohlrabi farming starts with the seedlings

How do you sow kohlrabi seeds? If you pictured scattering handfuls across a field, you'd be wrong. In reality it's painstaking work: crouching down and placing one seed into each cell of a seedling tray.

One seed per cell — sowing begins

We fill seedling trays full of small cells with bio potting mix and press it down firmly. We place a seed on top and cover it with more mix — cover it the wrong way and the seed can pop out. After sowing, we don't put the trays straight into the light; we give them a day or two in the dark to wake up.

A seedling tray after sowing.

After germination: managing water

Two days later we spread the trays out on crates in the nursery greenhouse. From here, watering is everything. We have to check morning, noon and evening so the mix doesn't dry out; in this sowing we saw that giving even a little less water weakened the seedlings, while the over-watered side became leggy. Legginess — sprouts growing thin and tall and losing strength — came down to small differences that are hard to notice without experience.

A variety that decides the flavor

The seeds we planted this year are a variety that got a great response when we used it last year — not something just anyone can get. Farming alongside the village elders, we were grateful to be able to get it again this year.

Sowing together

We always sow with the older guys from the neighborhood. From dawn until afternoon it's simple repetition — press the soil, place the seed, cover it — but with company the time flies.

Looking back now — the seeds and seedling method we secured then became the foundation of the growing that continues today in our kohlrabi and Kohlrabi+ Fermented Enzyme.