But transplanting is a more reliable method of growing. Home gardeners often prefer to buy the small plants. Insects and diseases. Cabbage plants are attacked by aphids, cabbage loopers, maggots, cabbageworms, and other insects. Some insects eat the leaves, destroying the head's shape.
Insecticides can control insects.
Diseases that affect cabbage plants include blackleg, club root, mildew, mosaic, black rot, and yellows. Club root and yellows are soilborne diseases. Scientists have developed cabbage varieties resistant to yellows. Cabbage is in the mustard family, Brassicaceae or Cruciferae. It is Brassica oleracea, variety capitata.