Crop lessons · Brassicas (cabbage family)
Growing Kohlrabi in Florida
Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes · Brassicaceae (cabbage family)
Kohlrabi is an easy, quick cool-season crop grown for its swollen, bulb-like stem, which tastes like a milder, sweeter cabbage or turnip; the young leaves are edible too. It is grown much like cabbage. Pick it young: older stems get tough and fibrous.1, 2
Planting1, 2
| How to start | seed or transplant (easily transplanted) |
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| Seed depth (inches) | ½ |
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| Spacing in the row (inches) | 3 to 5 (SP 103); Gardening Solutions says about 4 |
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| Between rows (inches) | 24 |
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| Days to harvest | 70 to 80 from seed; 50 to 55 from transplant (SP 103). Gardening Solutions says about 60 days from seed and 40 from transplants, and 55 days from sowing for 'White Vienna'. |
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SP 103 planting dates: north Sept to Mar, central Oct to Mar, south Oct to Feb. Matures quickly, so several crops fit in one season. Avoid planting next to other cole crops, which share its pests.
Varieties UF/IFAS lists for Florida1, 2
- Early White Vienna
- Purple Vienna
- Kolibri (red)
- Terek (green)
Growing1, 2
| Sun | Full sun. SP 103 advises a garden spot with at least six hours of direct sun a day (general advice, not specific to this crop). |
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| Soil pH | 5.8 to 6.3 (SP 103's general target for vegetable gardens on sandy soil; no change is needed anywhere from 5.5 to 7.0). No crop-specific figure was found. |
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Gardening Solutions says planting time and methods are much like cabbage's.
Pests and diseases in Florida2, 3
- Cole crop pests (caterpillars such as diamondback moth and cabbage looper; aphids): Gardening Solutions says kohlrabi shares pests with its cole crop relatives; the specific pests named here come from the cole crop chapter of the commercial Vegetable Production Handbook (CV122), which covers kohlrabi.
Harvest1, 2, 4
Harvest stems when they are 1½ to 3 inches across. Peel the outer layer before eating; the leaves can be cooked like kale or collards. Kohlrabi can also be grown as a microgreen and cut when four true leaves appear. For storage, remove the stems and leaves and keep the bulb in a plastic bag in the crisper, where it keeps up to about two weeks (FY1548).
In an aquaponics system5
suited with care
The FAO manual puts kohlrabi among cabbage-family crops with medium nutrient demand and says large bulb or root crops such as kohlrabi are better in media beds, because rafts and NFT pipes give poor growing conditions and support.
What this lesson doesn't cover yet
- No water or fertilizer advice specific to kohlrabi was found.
- Days to harvest differ between SP 103 and Gardening Solutions; both are given.
- No crop-specific soil pH figure was found.
Your county extension office and its Master Gardener volunteers can fill these in for your garden.
Sources
- Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide. UF/IFAS Extension, EDIS, SP 103. Read 2026-11-02.
- Kohlrabi. UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions. Read 2026-11-02.
- Vegetable Production Handbook of Florida, Chapter 6. Cole Crop Production. UF/IFAS Extension, EDIS, HS724/CV122. Read 2026-11-02.
- Healthy Harvest: Florida Brassicas, Cruciferous Vegetables, and Leafy Greens. UF/IFAS Extension, EDIS, FCS3405/FY1548. Read 2026-11-02.
- Small-scale aquaponic food production: Integrated fish and plant farming (Somerville et al. 2014). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper 589. Read 2026-11-02.
Every fact above is restated in our own words from these documents, written 2026-11-02. Independent of the University of Florida.