An experiment was conducted in fall of 1988 and spring of 1989 to examine methods of producing cabbage grown with either bare soil or cover crops. Raised beds were constructed in the fall of 1988 and planted with either rye (Secale cereale (L.]) or hairy vetch (Vicia villosa [Roth]), or left bare. All plots were sprayed the following spring with glyphosate. Cabbage was transplanted to each plot. Four rates of nitrogen were applied to each treatment. Each nitrogen by cover treatment was div~ded into two insect control strategies (timed vs. population threshold). The greatest cabbage yield was with bare soil and the lowest was with the rye cover crop. There was a ositive linear response to nitrogen. Cabbage grown in rye was in ! ested with fewer cabbage loopers, thrips, and aphids, and had a higher percentage of marketable heads, than did cabbage grown in vetch or bare soil. A threshold-based insect control program required three (rye, vetch) or four (bare soil) fewer insectic~de applicat~ons than a scheduled application program with the same soil covers, but marketable yields were equal to those with scheduled applications.