Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi, Interested in your winter greens collection "20 plants, 5 of each variety;
Kale Reflex F1, Sprouting Broccoli Rudolph, Cauliflower Amsterdam F1 and Cababge Tundra F1 AGM"

How much room will one of each plant need?

Thanks Colin

I usually reckon 2' between rows and between plants.

Hi Colin!

Loads of space both in width & height allowances. When they are little you think it is extravagant but believe me they will fill that space. I did mine about 1'6" & already regretting it. My curly kale (purple & green) are loving the rain & growing like mad so am taking leaves to stop them shading each other & limiting growth, & my frilly sprouts have suddenly decided to shoot up so have had to raise the netting already! Got to get through the rest of the warm weather so may need scaffolding to harvest!

Brussels are mahoosive, ditto Swedes and Parsnips, intend sowing some cabbage this weekend, bit late this year. I grow in blocks and tend to put things closer together.

Hi Tigerburnie,
Closer together is a big mistake because the 2' x 2' quoted by Monika to me is correct but should be treated as a minimum and not a maximum spacing. The cabbage famiy are a hungry lot and need as little competition as possible. To plant closer puts the plants into direct competition with each other which they can well do without this. I usually grow January King and with these superb savoy types they very easily fill the 2' x 2' space so therefore would really need more space and they are a variety that have a long standing time.
Brussel's Sprouts and the Broccoli tribe need plenty of room so as not to conflict. The only time I grow things on 18"x 18" spacing is for the pointed varieties and they seem to thrive being closer together and do very well.
JB.

Thank you all for your input. I have a bed 4ft square which had onions/garlic which I wanted to use. Seems like I am short on space. Anybody grown them in pots?

I have grown summer brassicas in raised beds at 12 " spacing very successfully this year, Romanesque and Golden Acre Primo have worked fine. The Brussels and Swedes are also at 12" spacing, we will see how they go this autumn, large healthy plants just now. There's a lot of compost under them and the raised beds had a lot of manure in them too. My Leeks, Onions and beets are all closer together in blocks in raised beds and all are doing really well this year, a lot closer together than traditional rows spacing's. I remember when Geoff Hamilton first talked about this type of growing and how you could grow things closer together and I have done this for a long time now, key is looking after the soil though.

Sounds worth doing Tigerburnie as my bed is similar to yours with lots of manure & different compost and is at least 14inchs deep so I’ll give it a go. Thanks.

Colin- yes you can grow them in pots/buckets but will take more care & attention & feeding, not much more of the feeding as they will slow down when the weather cools. It's just been a good year with the rain to make them happy but you will note the slow down & can adjust accordingly when it hits. Do some research - loads out there on container growing.

Keep the sprouts in the ground, but cabbages & caulies will be OK in pots!

I am retired and able to work on the veg daily, but to be honest, apart from a bit of tidying dead leaves up, the brassicas have fended for themselves. I will top dress with some fish, blood and bone next month to ensure they don't starve though.