Kitchen Garden Forum

I've been given some cauliflower and broccoli plants and I'll be planting them up next week. Before planting I was going to lightly fork in either some chicken manure pellets or blood, fish and bone. Which of those would be suitable (or not) for brassicas as my patch hasn't been manured for some time?

Brassicas are very hungry plants and like fertile soil and easy access to nitrogen. They also benefit from some lime if you have any as it helps them use the nitrogen.
My go to reference for fertiliser requirements is "Know and Grow Vegetables", it includes a table of ounces per square yard (old book) for different percentages of nitrogen in the fertiliser. For summer cauliflowers if the fertiliser contains 5% nitrogen it suggests 11 ozs/sqyd, if by broccoli you mean a calabrese it would be the same. For Winter greens like brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli it suggests a bit more at 15 ozs/sqyd. When you first apply at these rates they will look a lot, I think for regularly used fertile soil you can use somewhat less but in your circumstances I wouldn't skimp.
Chicken pellets are typically N:P:K 4:2.5:2.5 and fish, blood and bone is 5:5:6.5. FBB is better balanced but the N is most important for brassicas so it probably doesn't matter which you use, I prefer FBB.
Good luck!

Thank you Geoff for the information. Having a reference book would seem a good idea too.

So can I jump in and ask. I have just built a brassica cage over what was a well dug and composted bed. It is now quite trampled. Given the soil brassicas like should I quickly fork it over or just male a plug in the slightly compacted patch?

My planting area was lawn up until 4 days ago, and although compact, it's been lightly forked over just enough to make planting easy. I'll be adding a dose of blood fish and bone and hope that will keep the broccoli and cauliflower happy.

Compo, I believe brassicas do better in firm ground, less likely to fall over.

Dear All,
brassicas do like to be planted deep and firm especially the winter ones or those that will get top heavy such as cabbages and cauliflowers. Up to the first or second pair of true leaves (depending on size and or potential wind velocity) and firm enough that a leaf tears rather than the plant coming out of the ground is the usual measure of compaction. The heel of your boot next to the plant not only does the deed but leaves a useful depression for watering purposes.
Regards Sally Wright.

The heavy tramp around the planted brassica is what I do for the reason Sally has given. I think my mother taught me this trick.

Yes I usually heel them in, but what I am wondering given that the whole 7x2 metre area is trampled should I open up the ground a bit before putting in the plants then heel them in around their roots? I am on clay which is well cultivated with lots of organic matter, I think I will plan them then lightly fork in between once they are established....

I plant in 6 inches of compost and found first year they fell over. Did the stamp over on all the compost then planting deep & healing found by adding a pole to help them as well.

Dear Compo,
I usually just loosen the point in the row where the plants are to go so that I don't sprain my wrist digging the holes to plant them and then wellie them back in. Unless you use a road roller you cannot over firm the soil round a brassica plant. They don't have much in the way of big roots except the main one and so they can be really prone to rocking in the wind as they grow. This can be a real problem for brussels sprouts as it causes the buttons to blow (bolt).
Regards Sally Wright.