GardenCabbage variety
Golden Cross Cabbage
✓ In your garden
Golden Cross is a mini cabbage, ready in about 45 days. It forms a firm head for slaws, sauerkraut, braises, and soups. Cabbage is a cool-season crop — grow it in spring or fall, feed it well, and watch for cabbage worms.
“A cool-season cabbage for slaws, kraut, and cooking.”
Growing basics — shared by every cabbage
Golden Cross grows like any other cabbage. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Cabbage page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 12–18 in
- Row spacing
- 24–36 in
- Planting depth
- 0.25–0.5 in
- Soil pH
- 6–7
- Water
- Moderate
What is Golden Cross good for?
- Slaw & krautShred raw or ferment it. Great
- Braises & soupsCooks down sweet. Great
- Long storageUse fresh within weeks. Skip it
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
What Golden Cross is known for
Reimer Seeds describes this as:
- happy in a pot
That is the company selling the seed, describing its own product. True, and worth weighing as such.
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Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Golden Cross in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around mid May, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Start seeds indoors
- mid Feb – early Mar
- Toughen up outside
- mid Mar – late Mar
- Move plants outside
- late Mar – early Apr
- Plant seeds outside
- mid Mar – mid Mar
- Growing
- early Apr – mid May
- Picking
- mid May – late May
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
What to plant near Golden Cross — and what to keep away
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Aromatic HerbsTrialed
Mixed, strong-smelling plantings make brassicas harder for pests to find — real research, modest effect. Keep mint in a pot.
-
DillTrialed
Dill flowers feed the tiny parasitoid wasps that hunt cabbage worms. Let some of it bloom near the bed.
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Flea Beetle Trap StripTrialed
A trap strip pulls flea beetles off young seedlings. UMN found mixes of three-plus trap species beat any single one.
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BeetsTraditional
On the classic chart's companion list for the cabbage family.
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NasturtiumTraditional
On the WVU companion list, with an aphid-magnet reputation. If aphids pile on, pull those plants before they breed.
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Onions & garlicTraditional
Old chart pairing; both hold cool-season beds.
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PotatoesTraditional
Old chart pairing.
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Beans PoleTraditional
Chart canon says no. Nobody's proven why. Cheap to respect.
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StrawberryTraditional
Flagged on the classic charts, including WVU's. Mechanism murky; the canon is consistent.
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TomatoTraditional
Flagged on the classic charts, mechanism murky. Skip the pairing if you've got the space.
The badge is the honesty. Trialed = a published field trial · Practical = a real mechanism · Traditional = companion-chart lore. These pairings hold for every cabbage.
Pairings compiled from University of Minnesota Extension, West Virginia University Extension.
Growing Golden Cross — the things that trip people up
- If heads split after rain, they’re over-ripe or got a sudden drink — harvest promptly when firm, and keep water even.
- Brassicas are cool-season — they bolt or turn bitter in summer heat, so grow them in spring and fall. Feed them well and watch for cabbage worms (the little green caterpillars); a floating row cover keeps the moths off.
Golden Cross cabbage at a glance
| Type | Mini |
|---|---|
| Days to ripe | 45 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Green |
| Fruit size | Small |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about Golden Cross
How long does Golden Cross take to grow?
About 45 days from transplant. Start seeds indoors and set out young plants for the best heads.
When should I grow Golden Cross?
In the cool of spring or fall — brassicas bolt and turn bitter in summer heat. Fall crops often taste best, sweetened by a light frost.
Browse more cabbage varieties →