Author Topic: Brassica question?  (Read 2362 times)

Nora42

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Brassica question?
« on: April 01, 2015, 20:07:55 »
I was going to direct sow my brassicas but lets face it the soil on most of the plot is like moon boulders of London clay even after two years of adding organic matter. Happily most thing grow well once established.
With that in mind I have sown most of my brassicas today, cabbages and PSB, Brussels sprouts and khol rabi.

once they have germinated and instead of potting on into bigger pots I am thinking of plopping them into a seed bed to grow up a little before finally planting on - I may loose some to slugs and will have to protect them from the pigeons but I can't seem to find any info as to whether this is a good plan?
Not rocket science either so I'm thinking why not it will also save me having to phaff about with a lot of pots and worry about keeping them watered.

so what do you peeps think?
Nora
Norf London

bluecar

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Re: Brassica question?
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2015, 20:59:25 »
Hello Nora.

Using a seed bed is fine although I think if I was doing that I would have just put the seed into the bed directly, perhaps under some raised plastic sheeting to start with. Protection form those flying rats is essential, but I think slugs will be a major problem as they will decimate young plants. You will probably have to use some prevention mechanism - pellets or nematodes.

Regards

Bluecar

Pescador

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Re: Brassica question?
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2015, 21:22:03 »
Re-planting in a seedbed was an established and commonly used system.
Some protection from above is essential, and slug pellets or coffee grounds for slug protection as well.
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Tee Gee

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Re: Brassica question?
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2015, 22:29:17 »
I think you have gone about it in the wrong way.

I think you should have sown them directly into the nursery bed rather than pricking them it into it.

I don't think they will take kindly to pricking out into cold soil.

My guess Is you will lose more to the damp and cold than the slugs and snails.

If the annual weeds are not emerging yet then this indicates that the soil is not warming up yet.

You don't mention what size of containers you have sown your seeds in but if it were up to me I would leave them in these as long as possible before doing what you suggest in the hope that the soil has warmed up by then

All I can say is............best of luck

Digeroo

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Re: Brassica question?
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2015, 08:37:20 »
I use 12 place trays.  Mostly because I buy them full and then reuse them a couple of times.  Though I usually bypass the pricking out faff by planting one seed in each module. 

I sowed direct my first year and did very well, but since then the slugs have arrived and do a grand stripping job. 

There is someone around with a dog as well and it simply treads on small seedings, so I need to have bigger plants for them to survive.

artichoke

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Re: Brassica question?
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2015, 08:51:57 »
If I were to sow brassicas into seed beds I would get instant club root, quite a shock when I first did it. We have to plant out strong pot grown plants with plenty of lime.....

Tee Gee

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Re: Brassica question?
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2015, 09:54:08 »
I do much the same as Digeroo as you can see here with these sprouts I sowed on the 24th March



I can either pot them up now into 3" pots or leave them for a while until the plug becomes a bit root bound.

Paulh

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Re: Brassica question?
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2015, 21:41:16 »
I use modules, sowing several seeds to a cell, then potting up to 3" pots or equivalent. Sometimes I use the very small modules, especially with F1 varieties where you get 25 seeds to the expensive pack, and pot on to larger modules first. I find the seedlings transplant well in this way: if you thin down to two or three well separated seedlings in a large cell, you should get all to grow on.

I've not tried the nursery bed approach but I am intending to do it with leeks this year, as my pot grown seedlings never get to pencil size, just biro refill.

 

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