Topic: sowing cabbage/broccoli outside?

[antipodes]

Hi all! I know I know, I have been quiet lately.
I had a question: I find that it is too hot indoors for growing cabbage seedlings. This year I have prepared a little corner as a seed bed. Is it possible to sow cabbage/brussel sprout and broccoli (green) straight in the ground now and cloche them? It is quite warm here at the moment, many days well over 10 or 12 deg.
I feel I may get better results outside but is it too early?
I prefer sowing my own brassica as I don't need many and it seems more economical than buying plants.

[saddad]

I always grow in cells in a cold greenhouse and then a cold frame until I plant them out. You can sow a row direct and then thin/transplant... that's how they do it naturally. Slugs etc do the thinning...  :)

[PurpleHeather]

If the seed packet says sow in March, then put them in. NOT all of them though. Then you have some in reserve, carefully keep the rest, just in case.

The days are warm but the nights can still get chilly.

The slugs are about too and they adore a buffet of new seedlings.

You can cover your babies with a bit of glass, fleece, clear plastic, but make sure there is a gap so that when they shoot up the leaves do not touch the plastic covering or that will kill them too.

I suggest a few seeds in a flowerpot on the window sill. Not too many or they will be impossible to separate. Twenty would do for most. Then as soon as they get to a couple of inches high, gently turn the flower pot on its side and slide it off, you can then take out each seedling and give it a pot of it's own. You could then stand the pots outside somewhere safe and let them grow on.

I got a clear plastic yoghurt container from one of the supermarkets, it had 12 dividers in it and I put about 20 seeds of all different brassicas and things in separate flower pots which fitted the container. To show a new plot holder how to start, they took it home to put on their window sill a couple of weeks ago. They brought it back this week end to show me and many are coming through fine. Next week end I should think a few will be ready for stage two.

The set was:-
sprouts, Evesham special
round cabbage, Primo II
pointed cabbage Greyhound
leeks
Purple sprouting broccoli
Cauliflower All Year Round
Lettuce All Year Round
Marigolds french dwarf
Allysum
6 sweet peas (mixed)
1 marrow (A bit soon and it is not through)
some pepper seeds from a pepper (again not through)

He was chuffed and so was I.

[antipodes]

well truth be told, my hubby is already looking askance at the pots on the windowsill (aubergines, peppers and herbs), and I've not started the tomatoes yet, which invade the house for a good 2 months. I live in a flat so I can't have all the plants indoors and I have not been able to build a cold frame from lack of time and materials. That is why I wanted to sow directly in the garden.
SO I might try it, with cloches next week. Today for example it is 17 degC here so it is warming up sufficiently for them to germinate I think.

[GodfreyRob]

Can't trust the weather to stay mild yet. I would be prepared to protect any outside plants at this time of the year.  Slugs and hungry birds are the biggest threat  - so another reason to protect them.

A cloche can help dry out/warm up the soil but it only keeps a degree or two of frost away.

[cornykev]

I sowed some AYR cauli, pointy cabbage and greyhound cabbage straight into the soil yesterday.  ;D ;D ;D