Kitchen Garden Forum

i allways sow some greyhound cabbages in late summer in the tunnel, the heads are cut in the autumn and the stumps left in , they are now producing pleanty of leaf for spring greens. this year ive got a couple outside in a topless cold frame which are also doing well but a bit later, allong with a couple of old betroot which i picked leaves from for a salad this week.

Here goes putting photos in. Hope it works
oops

obviously not - i'll try again
Purple sprouting Boroccoli(early) March 2007


Cauliflower romanesco March 2007


Tuscan Kale in veg patch March 07


Tuscan Kale CU March 07

Dear C.J, congratulations for your determination.
There will be no stopping you now.

Félicitations CV

Told you it could be done. Let's see lots more.

Alan

Well, thanks all-I think! So, I should forget over- wintering, and concentrate on March to May sewings, apart from spring cabbage, which should do well in August. When I do sew, I should try to use my seedbed, and forget sewing in modules and pricking out. Am I getting this about right now?And just in case, I could try sewing direct into their final position, and avoid pricking out and transplanting altogether. Confused? Definitely! Asking veg. growers for advice is worse than asking doctors for their opinion- at least you only get one opinion from each doctor. Veg experts can give three different alternatives for every problem! Now THAT is what I call a bargain!

Apologies for spelling error- meant to be sOwing, of course! my other hobby is sEwing, and I'm easily confused, as you can tell.

That actually sounds reasuring to me Doctor Deb. Sorry if we have been confusing -

The great thing about growing veg is that there is no right and wrong - plants grow in the most inhospitable of conditions and the best we can hope to do is give them the best conditions we can. As Alan said that will always be working in the context you are in.

I tried sowing tomatoes direct in my polytunnel today - its worth a chance - and lucky for humans i am not a doctor

P.S the pictures i posted are from 2007 - confused i am not even sure what year it is

Deb
I'm not trying to add to the confusion. You do not need to give up on winter brassicas. Winter cabbage, kales, cauliflowers, sprouting broccoli can be sown in May and planted out to final position where they will form good strong plants before winter.
Get hold of a good gardening book and away you go.Have look at this old thread
viewtopic.php?t=2949



Pob lwc - Best of luck

Alan

For what it's worth I grow Spring Hero every year. 2 seeds to a 7 cm square pot in late August to September, never any later. They are kept in a fully ventilated tunnel and fed regularly, brearing in mind that the nutrients in multipurpose compost are spent woithin 3 weeks. No hurry to plant out, usually January into a polytunnel atgenerous spacing. They started to crop last week and will go on to second and even third heads and get cleared off at the end of May to make room for summer crops.
The only other brassica for now is Black Tuscany Kale, similar sowing and planting time, pick individual leaves from now on.
Allan

Hello Deb
I've found that a good all-year-round cabbage that does well in our area is 'Pyramid F1'. It doesn't seem to matter when you sow it - a sowing at anytime except mid winter will give you super leaf greens at first but left in the ground the plants will heart up to give a small tasty cabbage.

John

In reply to Deb.

There are many different ways to propagate plants and as gardeners all we can really do is share our experiences and knowledge and talk of normal ways of doing things!

Brassica's i would say are particulary the most difficult crop to grow and get right in my experience.

But then again "brassica's" is probably too broad a group of plants to give generlised best advice on anyhow.

Nobody said it was going to be easy!

Allan wrote:For what it's worth I grow Spring Hero every year. 2 seeds to a 7 cm square pot in late August to September, never any later. They are kept in a fully ventilated tunnel and fed regularly, brearing in mind that the nutrients in multipurpose compost are spent woithin 3 weeks. No hurry to plant out, usually January into a polytunnel atgenerous spacing. They started to crop last week and will go on to second and even third heads and get cleared off at the end of May to make room for summer crops.
The only other brassica for now is Black Tuscany Kale, similar sowing and planting time, pick individual leaves from now on.
Allan

How do you feed your spring cabbage in pots? what do you find is the best way?