How to Grow Cabbage on a Balcony

Select a pot at least 1 foot wide or more and 8 inches deep, with a foot deep or more being preferred. The container you choose should have two to three drainage holes. Place the pot in a full sun area of your balcony in early spring once hard frosts and winter storms have passed.

Fill the pot with 1 inch of pea gravel or terra cotta pieces. Cover the gravel with a mix of half potting soil and half compost to within 1 inch from the rim of the container. Dig a hole in the center of the pot equal in size to the pot your cabbage seedling is in.

Hold the cabbage seedling gently in your hand and lightly tug the seedling pot to slip it away from the cabbage plant’s roots. Set the root ball of the cabbage into the hole in the soil you created in your container. Press the soil lightly to firm it around the cabbage plant’s roots.

Water the container, measuring how much you needed, to moisten the soil fully without drenching it. Keep a regular schedule of supplying this amount of water to the plant to avoid letting the soil dry around the cabbage’s roots.

Spread a side-dressing -- sprinkling fertilizer around the base of the plant without touching the plant -- of high-nitrogen fertilizer or fresh compost when you plant the cabbage. Use a cultivator to work the feed into the upper inch of soil. Repeat once the head is half the size of the expected mature head.

Watch for the cabbage to begin forming a round head and cut back the quantity of water you’re using steadily to prevent the head from splitting.

Squeeze the head to feel for firmness to check for harvesting. Once the head is firm, cut horizontally across the base of the plant to remove the cabbage. Harvest the head immediately if you notice it splitting. Continue to care for the cabbage and watch for small 2- to 4-inch heads to form at the point where the head was harvested. Harvest these small heads when firm.