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hi all
can you help me please - i have some winter cabbage plants and no room for them at the moment, can I pot them on and grow them in pots until space becomes available? what does everyone else do when so much space is taken up with summer stuff

thanks in advance

Marcus

If you have any of the ikea blue bags lying around fill with soil add a few holes and plant :)

Should be ok in a pot for a week or 2 but they dont like root disturbance so i would look at the above as a way of resolving the issue :)

I am in a similar situation to Marcus.  All my brassicas are still in their trays but I haven't got anywhere to plant them out at the moment.  I am particularly worried about some of my purple sprouting that are in small cells.  I could easily transplant into 3 inch pots but would the root disturbance be the end of them?  I don't think they will survive for much longer how they are at present. 

I haven't any Ikea blue bags but have some growbags.  If I transfer them into those, how close together could I put them and would they then have to remain in the growbag all winter?

Planning and variety choice is the answer!

I grow three types Summer/Autumn/Winter-Spring

The winter spring go in with the summer stuff.

My autumn stuff has just germinated and is not pricked out yet.

These will go in the bed that currently has Japanese Onions,Garlic & Shallots in which I will harvest in the next few weeks.

Tee Gee, all my brassicas are for picking in the Spring. 

My onions and shallots were late going in and won't be ready for several weeks.  I have plenty of land but none is ready for planting.  I was going to put the brassicas where my potatoes are growing but because of all the late frosts, they are way behind being ready to be lifted.

I suppose I want to buy myself about four weeks but am worried that the Purple Sprouting in the small modules may not survive that long.

Paulines7 : If it were me I would put them into 3" pots as you suggest in your first post. The root disturbance is minimal with modules/pots unlike transplanting from a seed bed for example.
Also I read last year that PSB is more tolerant than other brassicas about being moved. Don't know if it is true or not, but I was given some extra plants last summer and had no room so popped them into a small space to grow on and moved them again later probably about 4 weeks. They grew well and the only reason I didn't get a good crop was because I failed to net them against the birds!!!
Hope this might help.

Many thanks plot51A, I will go and pot them up now.

if the brassicas are for next spring . then if you have broad beans and they are nearly ready in they will happily go in that bed

QuoteI suppose I want to buy myself about four weeks but am worried that the Purple Sprouting in the small modules may not survive that long.

Just a suggestion but you could try the 'nursery bed technique!

I would guess you could find a strip of ground where you could plant your plugs side by side say around 3"-4" apart. Then when your permanent quarters are ready transplant them from your nursery bed at the correct spacing!

This method beats loads of pots and you save on compost!

Last year I ran out of space big time and realised I had nowhere for my PSB.  So I planted it along the edges of my pea and broad bean beds.  They did not seem to upset the peas and beans and as soon as the peas/ beans had finished they got chopped off and the PSB took off.