Topic: Are they ruined?

[nilly71]

This is what my couliflower, sprouting broccoli looks like


The savoys and greens look basicly the same.

Are they dead/ruined or will they come back to life with warmer weather?

Neil

[saddad]

They'll bouce back... only if the leaves have gone slimy are they ruined by frost. Savoys and the rest will laugh it off. They look very healthy to me!  :)

[nilly71]

Thanks.

Is there anything i should be doing ie. cut of dead leaves?

Neil

[saddad]

If they have to be cut off then they aren't dead. Any very loose leaves, usually very yellow, or any that have fallen can be tidied away to the compost bin but otherwise just let them get on with it!  :)

[nilly71]

Been over there today and cleaned up all the dead leaves, left them uncovered for the day and they seemed to perk up a bit :) feel much happier now as they are my first attempt at growing over the plot.

Neil

[shirlton]

I think most plants do that to conserve energy when it's cold. I wouldn't mind plants like that. They look very good

[nilly71]

Thanks Shirlton
The bed was the first one i cleared and ordered 100 plug plants from ebay, i was/am very pleased with them and the savoys look so good, i can't wait for them to be fully grown.

Neil

[cornykev]

Don't leave them uncovered Neil, the birds will be foraging for food in this cold weather and they do like a bit of cabbage to chomp on.  ;D ;D ;D

[nilly71]

I only uncovered them while i was there to let as much sunlight in as possible, the blue scaffold netting seems to shade quite a bit but has done well to keep the nasties off.

Neil

[staris]

i made the mistake of not covering my cabbages and they are ruined by pigeons and partridges i won't be making that mistake again.

[nilly71]

They look better now, so i am well happy  :D I treated them to some mushroom compost as a thank you for surviving ;D

(sorry it's a bit blurry)




The purple has started coming out in the psb stems, is this a good sign?

Neil

[saddad]

Anything is a good sign at this time of year Neil!  ;D

[thifasmom]

nilly whats the bed size and how many eps broc did you plant in that space?

[nilly71]

Total size is 1.5m x 4.2m and it has something like (starting from left to right) 4 brussel, 10 greens, 10 savoys, 10 white sprouting, 10 premo, 10 purple sprouting, 14 couliflowers, 4 kury cale.

I have a divider seperating the two sides, just incase a butterfly or other pest got in then at least only one side would be ruined.

I know some of you experienced growers will be horrified that i have grown so many plants in such a small place, but this was the first bed i cleared and i had ordered 100 plug plants of ebay so thought i would give it a try.

For all you doing the maths ;D, I put some in another small cleared bed and also gave my sister-in-law some, as she has a plot over there and only had about 3'x4' cleared.

Neil 

[thifasmom]

thanks for the info. i think the plants look very healthy and so i guess you added lots of good muck to the soil which helped support all those plants.

[nilly71]

I think the person closest to my plot used the bed the year or so before, for potatoes. I cleared it of weeds and dug down about two spades then mixed in manure and mixed it all together, then spread about four bags of compost on top and lightly mixed that in.

I think i should of planted them deeper as most of the plants are leaning, maybe they are holding each other up ;)

Neil

[nilly71]

These were taken yesterday and all are looking excellent. Plenty of PSB and WSB :)




Neil

[1066]

Well done Neil, they are looking great, bet your really chuffed with your efforts!