Cauli and cabbage - will they be okay in undug ground?

[Gwyndy]

Dibblecat - I used brassica collars last year and they didn't do a thing. I still lost most of my plants. To add insult to injury they were biodegradable so fell apart when I picked them up at the end of the season!!! (Good way to make money.) I am reading Terry Walton's book at the moment and he records (paraphrasing) that his father would never plant out his brassicas until Terry had played on the ground for some time and compacted it.