One of my older neighbours told me I should always transplant brassicas from a seed row, because if you break the roots, it makes them stronger plants. This was prompted by the sight of me carefully planting out pot raised spring cabbage. I guess the theory is that each root then branches and makes a fuller root system
I was pot raising mine because I missed sowing them direct last year and had to cheat a bit to catch up. I'm not usually a root ruffler when planting, but he's a real old school gardener who grows loads of top notch veg, so I'm inclined to believe him. I did rough up the rootballs a bit - would that be enough or should I have cut some off?
I'm just undecided whether the root disturbance and possible check to growth outweighs the advantages - any of you know best?
i was once told this re lettuce. but if you think about the comercial growers (organic or otherwise) its decades now since they went over to module planting as opposed to bare rooted. stick with your method i say. its what i have done for years.
I'm with it being Old Wives - like to be honest much gardening advice is - things usually grow in spite of us not because of us.
I have club root so I grow greens plants on into 3" pots with a decent about of lime mixed in to the potting compost. The bed they go into is surface weeded and heavily limed during the winter. Fertiliser raked into the surface then the root balls from the pots firmly planted. I get good sprouts inspite of a few plants keeling over with club root.
Hi Sue,
It has been my experience over the years that the stronger the root system prior to planting out the stronger the plant. I have been growing Brassicas in Modules ever since modules were invented and I can assure you that your neighbour is totally wrong in his thinking.
As is previously mentioned people with areas affected with Club Root, by the use of potting into pots to establish a superior root system, manage to get results.
I have occaisionally potted on from the module when my work schedule has been too hectic to plant out and I have been growing for longer than most and have yet to have a failure with Brassicas.
As a second thought. Aren't damaged roots more likely to pick up the infection? So pot growing porbably gains twice - stronger roots and no wounds for infection to enter.
I went over to modules and small pots on almost everything possible quite a long time ago, indeed peas were one of the earliest crops done that way and I had to laugh when several years later the advice came back to me to do them that way. I have been growing brassicas in modules which helps them inasmuch as there is a decent fibrous root system befire the plants are at risk of infection. However there are two points of concern, I find that the seedlings tend to tip over, so one has to plant at the opposite angle, the other concern is starvation if kept waiting before plantin, which is corrected very effectively with a dose of Miracle Grow at a speed that amazed me.
Lastly, by starting plants this way you can get enough plants from a very small quantity of seed if you take the trouble to sow to that degree of precision. For example lettuce seeds are sown 3 to a module and by spreading the seeds you still get some spares to cope with the few empty modules. Pandero lettuce seeds only come as coated singles and spares aren't really necessary. F1 brassicas are sown as nearly all singles,the extras give a few doubled-up for spares, a typical packet of about 40 seeds will give at least 30 plants.
All this propogation and manipulation can be done comfortably on bench or table, so much better than at ground level.
anything lettuce,brassica, onion, leek, sweet/chilli pepper or tomato size seeds i tend to sow more or less direct into modules of appropriate size (i have a large selection of commercial module trays from when i sold bedding plants) you can get handy module inserts of varying sizes now @ about 25p to suit a full seed tray.once your modules are filled with a nice sifted compost, get a 6 inch piece of thin cane sharpened and dip it into a little water you can then pick up individual seeds (through water tension) and sow with great accuracy. try it i wouldnt sow any other way. this is not to say that if i'm pushed for time i just broadcast sow into a half tray and then prick out into modules at the appropriate time. thats also when i hopefully have more time.rgds paul.
I've got club root on my plot, so am trying modules this year and will put the plants into a well limed bed and just see how it goes. Allan, when you say your seedlings tip over do you mean they lean over to one side or what? I say stroke your seedlings every day to keep them strong and healthy!
Hi Allan,
I do not fully understand why you sow three lettuce seeds per module because as I see it you are defeating the object of module plants. Here it is one seed per module and out of tray straight into the soil done and dusted. So what do you do split the plants out of the module? I just cannot fathom that! Are you telling us that you grow in modules to prevent too much root disturbance then deliberately sow more than one seed per module and disturb the roots by splitting them up prior to planting out!!!
Like Jude, I too wonder what you mean by plants tipping over and you have to find the opposite angle.
If you mean that they grow to the light and if that is what you mean you correct that when you transplant the and they will correct themselves I have very seldom had the problem of growing to the light. Mine are grown in the tunnels on the bench and light is pretty even.
I'll try to explain. For 3 seeds to a pot or module they are placed as far apart individually as is reasonable.
Stage 2. The seedlings are tiny and spaced well apart so not affecting one another.If none are wanted as extras to fill in empty pots then all except one are pulled out with minimum disturbance, if one is wanted as a transplant it can be seperated carefully complete with a generous amount of compost and placed in the barren pot.
We now have a complete tray singled out to grow on to planting stage.
In some cases the available space on the propogating area is short in the early time of the year so it is possible with some crops at this early stage to repot and for example turn a tray of swiss chard doubles into 2 trays of singles. This works far better than sowing a seed tray at random then pricking out by teasing them apart to try to make the best of a rather bad job of the overcrowded seedlings. Critical judgment or you what you might call greenfingers comes into play.
Perhaps your misunderstanding comes from the practice of sowing in those multiple module trays where there are many tiny cells, maybe 100 or more. I work in , at the worst, 40 modules in the size of a standard seed tray, but for most plants 24 per tray or even 16 pots to fit into the tray, hardly what you could crowded in any of these so there is no great difficulty in splitting plants off for repotting.
As surely you must know, species vary considerably in their vulnerability to disturbance, in my experience onions and brassicas don't mind, beetroot seem tolerant as long as it is done early, lettuce only tolerate it in the cooler time of the year, radishes never, etc.
As to tipping over, this always seems to occur to a greater or lesser extent, and isn't linked to the dorection of the light as it happens in the standing-=out area where light can come in all directions. I can only suggest that the multi-purpose compost is not sufficiently firm but if you make it too firm they are not happy either. It doesn't matter all that much finally.
Do you have any special tricks with cauliflowers?
(I know you don't grow them Johnboy)
I find them the floppiest seedlings which tempts one to plant them too deep to give them some support. This I think is why there are so many cauliflower failures as I think they need to be kept at the seedling level when planted out. I find I have to give them wind protection until they have bulked up and are self supporting.
A gardening programme I remember from some years ago stated that club root is endemic in peat, therefore if you are going to grow brassicas is modules you should use a soil-based compost, otherwise you will just be increasing the chance of getting club root.
I can't remember which gardening programme it was, whether if was Geoff Hamilton, or a programme we used to get in the Central TV area with Geoff Amos.
Maybe someone else remembers it.
Either way, it is probably best to use a soil-based compost to avoid the risk.
i sow a pinch of brassica seed in old margarine tubs , then move on to small pots before planting out. most other medium sized seeds start individually in small yogurt pots, beans are normally started about 10 to a supermarket mushroom tray. i have in the past tried the multicell plastic trays but found the small cells dried out too much.
