You can do it with no problems - as i've done it before several times.

EG

I believe you can eat those bits too if the main head hasn't formed, I sure that my dad used to grow cabbage and harvest some early, he called them spring greens I think.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ha, Har! found a link, enjoy, I am off to get some Spring Greens :-)

I've been doing this...and making cabbage rolls out of the leaves I trim back.

Buried in here is the inherent message that strictly adhering to "squares" is wrong, and the "book" is merely a guideline. If a plant is larger than "a square" at maturity then plant appropriately. There is no need to be strict about keeping things in "a square" so you follow "the book" precisely. Nature is absolutely, positively uncaring about a book and the methods therein.

And cabbage leaves fresh out of the garden - yum!

Dan

Yup with you Dan, after posting I went and got one of my UK books by the RHS and they recommended 1/2 spacing of cabbage plants then thinning, to the appropriate spacing, when they where going to touch, so you could get a crop of Spring Green's before the cabbage came in.
I just thought if you are going to do it, might as well get the benefit :-)
My Dad and Pop, I am sure used that RHS method as they intensively gardened, when I described it once on the forum, someone told me it was called French? intensive.
I'm glad the question was raised as I had "forgotten" about spring greens, and this post brought it back, which saved me from composting the 2 starts I had no room for as I had planned to in the next couple of days as all they others are thriving, so I have stuck then between 2 other starts.
I wonder what other things we could eat, but end up throwing away? due to our ignorance?
I didn't know about Beet greens until last year, I just bet my Dad and Pop used them, but didn't tell me, as I professed to hate Beetroot :-) or that you could use last years growth on an onion, before it bolts.
Not hauling a cabbage stump out the ground but cutting it above ground, and scoring the stork for regrowth.
Pea shoot tops when halting growth can be eaten in salad, just the juicy top growth.
Radish's which have gone to seed the seed pod make a nice snacking food, anybody got any others?

French intensive, biointensive, x,y,z intensive, SFG intensive, all the same idea Heather.

We use the garlic scapes, daylily fls, and occasionally we like to get people's attention with the old honey locust trees - with the thorns and all the pods - by taking a green pod and eating the green stuff out of the pod. Tastes like honey.

Dan

I find the Early Jersey Wakefield to be a real good early green and makes excellent cabbage rolls too. I trimmed leaves on cabbage last year when it took over some nearby leeks. first time on that cabbage, it got bigger than stated on the seed pack by about 50%. I just cut the leaves back with my garden shears some of them in half. The cabbage grew and headed up as good as the non-trimmed ones.

curt#

Smaller varieties might be a better fit. I've been happy with Gonzales, and want to try Alcosa, which is a little savoy I think. Once it really gets going, cabbage seems able to take quite a bit of abuse. Sometimes I rip off the lowest leaves to keep them from being a slug hangout.

Here is a link that might be useful: article about small cabbage

planatus; I have planted a three pack mix from Jung's. They are listed as the size of a softball Hopefully they will sfg I can always check back on my records to see what varieties they are Red, Savoy, Smooth. So far all are growing about equal and all are doing well.

Curt#

I think that sometimes tightish spacing has a dwarfing effect, for ex I've heard that Super Red 80 (a full size cabbage) will size up small at 18-inch spacing. Sounds like it's likely that you have very promising candidates! If growth slows, hit them with some fish emulsion. As the weather warms, they should take off.

I don't know about heading up but the smaller leaves went into a fresh salad tonight. The head is not that big of a deal to me, length of harvest is. I have joi Choi- Pack Choi planted/ grown/ harvested in the kitchen light garden over winter, transplanted in the SFG and being harvested right now. that's 4 months of harvesting leaves for cooking at least once a week and sometimes twice a week. Except in the transplant recovery time. Boy do I have Pock Choi I had planted successive, expecting the older plants to bolt. they never did. I think I need a new thread for this, Maybe Asian vegetables?thanks for your time.

Curt#

Thank you all for info. I'm a first year gardener. I really enjoy it. A great a stress reliever.