BABIES

[waggi]

we have baby cabbages, sprouts and brocoli WOW
how exiting :o

they are sprouting up out of there little seed trays

[waggi]

[tim]

Thought you meant more like the one on the left!!

[waggi]

when would you soplit the babys up and replant them and then when should you plant them outside
#

[tim]

I think we need a teaching point here?

Normally, brassica are sown outside. And pulled out to break the tap root when transplanting. But I have grown them in modules indoors.

Before anything else, I would suggest hardening off for at least a week. Then, if they are 3-4" high, they could be planted out into firm ground. If smaller than that, split them up & move them into a seedbed at ? 2" spacing for later transplantation.

When you finally plant them, put them in deep.  As so often, E&OE!

[waggi]

uhps  :-[

ohhh well i still have babys and they are exiting - poking there little green heads up out of the muck all over my windowsills

[tim]

You'll be fine.

And given that one can buy brassica plants, from most suppliers, that have presumably been module grown, the old teaching may have become more of a 'tale'?

[Mrs Ava]

I grow mine in modules and the only failure I suffered was with caulis, and I don't know if that was because they were module grown, or if it was because my ground wasn't terribly firm.  However, a late sowing of caulis now have caulis coming, so not a total failure!

I also have red cabbages, sprouts and kohl rabi through, but only just, and they are in my greenhouse so I will be looking at another month before they would be big enough to get into the ground.

[Mothy]

We have cabbages & sprouts growing in my dad-in=laws greenhouse sown in trays. Will harden them off in a few weeks before planting out and netting them. Pigeons are a pest at my lottie apparently  :)

[tim]

Emma - the plug-grown caulis that I have tried - Marshalls etc - have been excellent. As you say - firm ground,  & 'the book' stresses a rich soil, plenty of water & no checks.

[Mrs Ava]

Water is always an issue on my plot as we have no piped water, only a stream, which is quite dry, and anything mother nature provides.  Have previously been digging in plenty of organic matter to try and help things along, so fingers crossed.

[Roy Bham UK]

Emma , I am amazed how well you do on your plot without water on tap, as Essex is notably dryer than probably any other part of the UK. 8)

Do you carry water to your plot during droughts ??? We are without water at the moment as we are awaiting a connection, so I take several large milk cartons filled with water and leave them scattered around the plot and use them as weights to hold down the plastic sheets till I need to water any plants.
(perhaps this should have been in the tips forum) ;D

[TULIP-23]

What do you mean by Modules!!

MIne are Outside Broccoli I mean and Just beginning to show now About 1/2 inch high.....First time so Im pleased.

Noted Tim: Wait until they are Three to Four Inches High
then Plant out!!

[Mrs Ava]

Nope Roy.  I am far to lazy to carry water to the allotment!  We do have a teeny ditch fed from a spring up on the common but by the time it reaches the plot if is very silty so it is hard to fill a bucket.  I do collect water from the shed into a waterbut (thanks to the lovely Ava) and then use this to fill up an old wheelie bin and another large container, however, I never seem to have the time, nor the energy to lug watering can after watering can around my 2 plots watering things.  I use it to water seed drills, water newly planted seedlings and water anything new that is planted, that is it.  I do incorporate plenty of organic matter in the forms of rotted manure, leaf mould, spent growbags, and the compost from my huge compost heap.  Sometimes I believe we mollycoddle plants by watering them continuously.  Let them do what nature intended them to do and send those little roots down to find water!

Modules Tulip are seed trays that have individual sections in, like a dozen little pots all in one tray.

[tim]

It amazes me how folk cope without water. Especially for 'puddling in' the brassica plants - always in June during a heatwave. Or leeks.

In 'the olden days', we used to take a plastic cold water roof tank - 80gal or so? - up to the lotties ("allotments") in the Landrover. Even in 'bow low' gear', the sloshing was quite wasteful. You certainly couldn't do it in the back of the Rolls! We finally counselled enough to get mains water - just as we gave up the plots.

[TULIP-23]

E.J -Emma Jane :)


Thank you.....if you dont  know ask... if you dont ask you dont know...Now I know what Modules are....Ta ;)