All my winter brasicas gone straight to seed

[bathjobby]

Hello,
Well the title says it all really. My first attempt at growing them and they are in a border created last year with new good quility bought in top soil. The sprouts didn't put on any height until a few weeks ago then went to seed i.e. very tall with flowers forming and no signs of any spouts. The brocoli produced small heads and then shot up tall to seed over same few last weeks, now the gabbage which were looking ok are shooting up rather than filling out. The cauli heads on the cauliflowers which haven't shot up yet are looking very seedy rather than hard and firm.
I guess if they are doing this then they are lacking something or something is stressing them or this is the time for them to go to seed and for some reason they all didn't develop prior, but I'm a novice so any advice will be most welcome.
Thanks..

[Two_Sheds]

This is indeed the time for them to go to seed - all my kale have now bolted and the sprouts will do soon.

Did you plant them very late? Mine get sown in spring, and planted out in summer, to be eaten over winter.

[jacob marley]

Sound's to me that the top quality top soil wasn't as good as it should have been could have done with some help from some fertilizer or was the ground to dry .
Brasica's need plenty of moisture and some thing to keep it in the ground.

Because all plants when too dry try to reproduce them selves by flowering and making seed....jacob

[Eyren]

As Two_Sheds says, the clue is in the name - winter brassicas. They are bred to crop in winter, so by this time of year they are ready to set seed. If they didn't grow big enough to eat before they went to seed, then conditions in your border obviously aren't right for them.

Which way does the border face (north, south, whatever)? Are there trees or bushes nearby that would compete for water and nutrients? Brassicas like a moist alkaline soil, on the heavy side, with plenty of fertilizer...

[Alice]

If your brassicas were planted into new top soil the ground might just have been too loose for them. They like to planted really firmly.

[snohare]

They should still be edible though, shouldn't they ? Even particularly tasty, the flowers, steamed.... I'm sure I remember reading this in a veggie magazine somewhere, very recently !