Vegetables · Cool
Kohlrabi
Brassicaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 30 cm
- USDA zones
- 3a–9a
- Frost-sensitive
- no
- Growth duration
- 9 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- full sunAlso okay:partial shade
- Soil (prefers)
- loamyAlso okay:clayraised-bed mix
- Drainage (prefers)
- normal
Seed & start
Pre-culture recommended
Start indoors / cold frame first, transplant into the raised bed later.
Stachi's tip
Kohlrabi is surprisingly easy for a cabbage relative. 60-80 days from seed to bulb. Best raw — in sticks like a carrot — tastes like a very mild cross between broccoli and turnip.
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
Transplanting
Harvest
Good neighbours
Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
Avoid these neighbours
Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
Good pre-cultures
Stachi has no specific pre-cultures recorded.
What comes after Kohlrabi?
When the bed frees up, the season is usually not over. We worked out what still fits afterwards — with time windows and reasons.
See follow-on crops for Kohlrabi →Sources
- Kreuter, Bio-Garten
- Kosmos Gartenkalender
- LLM-Baseline-Intercrop
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Spacing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Companion planting
- Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
- Crop rotation
- Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
- Yield
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Sources: Kreuter, Bio-Garten · Kosmos Gartenkalender · LLM-Baseline-Intercrop · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
Articles about this plant
Kale in the raised bed: plant it now in September
Kale needs frost to taste its best. Plant it now in September and you'll have a tough, harvest-ready crop from November onward — no starting from seed, no stress, no tricks.
Plant broccoli in August: still time for an October harvest
Anyone who puts broccoli seedlings in now will be harvesting in October. The window is tight — but it's enough. Broccoli actually makes more sense in autumn than in spring: fewer pests, firm heads, better flavour in the cold.
Pak choi in August: sow now for your autumn harvest
Pak choi bolts in summer — too much heat, too much light, and it starts making seeds instead of heads. August is the turning point: cooler nights, shorter days, and it finally does what you want. The window lasts four weeks.
Harvesting kohlrabi at the right time: how to tell before it turns woody
My neighbour Frau Schneider brought me a kohlrabi the size of a coconut last week. It tasted like wood. Here's how to catch that moment before it's too late.
Pre-growing for the autumn bed: what you should already be sowing in June so the autumn doesn't stay empty
In June the bed is full and autumn feels far off. That's exactly the trap. What you pre-grow now, you harvest in October — and what you miss, you'll simply do without.
Three vegetables for March — and why peppers have to wait
Radish, spinach, pak choi. All three tolerate cold. Peppers would die before they even germinate.
Related plants
Products mentioned in this post
- Plantura organic tomato seed set (10 varieties)Open-pollinated, good germination — robust for raised beds.
- Organic tomato seed set, 14 varieties
- Organic heirloom tomato seed set (Demeter, 12 varieties)
- Organic vegetable seed set, 10 varietiesCucumber, tomato, beetroot, broccoli, carrot, chard & more.