Brassicas - How Deep

[Limousin Lass]

I have rescued some cauliflower and broccoli plants that a friend was going to throw away.  They are still in the tray she bought them in as young seedlings and have been in the shade in her greenhouse so have grown rather spindly with about 6" - 8" of very thin stalk with a few leaves at the top.
How deep can I plant them, they are growing in about an 1" of compost at the moment.

(I hate throwing plants out that have a chance of life ;D)

[Limousin Lass]

[tim]

Cold greenhouse?

Do they have good roots?

[Fork]

Personally,I wouldnt bother trying to rescue them.

Being so tall and spindly,they would need to be buried quite deeply and if they are very thin then it would be a difficult task without actually damaging them.

[Hector]

I have planted out deeply some Romanesco that had got spindly BUT they were only about 2 inches too tall IYKWIM
I planted until they sat solid, as nothing to lose? Doing ok so far.

[busy_lizzie]

Could you not pot them on a bit so the roots become a little stronger before you put them out? I always like to put out brassicas especially, with a good root formation, as they have so many pests to combat, and it gives them a better chance to flourish.  Tim is right they don't like a hot greenhouse, but prefer somewhere coolish.  :) busy_lizzie

[telboy]

Limousin,
Dib them in deep with good feed wet  compost. Give them a go! They will root from the stem eventually. Wortha try!

[tonybloke]

plant them up to their first set of leaves, dib a large hole, insert plant, and fill and firm in. then water well, cover to protect from pigeons, and leave alone
;)

[Limousin Lass]

Thank you all for your very helpful advise.  As an experiment I have planted 6 of each straight out into the veggie plot and the other 6 of each I have potted on into quite large pots and will plant later.  I thought about 4 weeks, will that be long enough for them to get more established?

We don't seem to get many pigeons here but because of the deer, wild boar and next doors geese we have had to surround our plot with quite a sturdy fence ::) ;D.

[tim]

Roots??

[Limousin Lass]

Tim,   The plants are well rooted, they were in trays of twelve plants and the underneath of the tray was a mass of roots.  I cut the bottom out of the trays and then cut them into the 12 pieces and gently teased the bottom bit of tray off trying not to lose too many of the roots before I re-planted them.

Hopefully they will survive and grow.  I love freebies, they always seem to taste better  ;).

[tim]

In that case, I agree with the get'em in brigade.

And, as always, deep! Puddle in & leave.