why do cabbages get sown in trays?

[cammi]

Hi
I was already to plant my cabbage seeds in their allotted square tomorrow (im doing SFG), but have now read, that all brassicas are to be sown in a seed bed first then planted out - - - - - why??

Thanks

[greenishfing]

I don't plant my brassicas in trays but I do make a seed bed in the allotment. I do a line of each variety. They tend to support each other. Then I thin them as they grow, getting rid of the weakest and most nibbled. They are usually a few inches tall when I plant the strongest in their final position.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Bit of an old fashioned idea from the days when allotmenteer's made them selves a seed bed with a fine tilth to start their seeds of in.

I set al my brassica's in module's and plant out when they have got going.

Potty

[Kristen]

I expect it was because Brassicas are planted so far apart that it wasn't practical to "sow a row and then thin"so they sowed them "as normal" in a seed bed, and then transplanted them getting one plant at each of the planting stations - all spaced at exactly the same distance apart

Modern equivalent would be to raise plants in modules - I grow mine in 9cm pots and then plant out with a bulb planter - which happens to make a hole neatly sized so that a plant from a 9cm pot drops in nicely

[cammi]

Do you do these in the greenhouse??

If not could I sow them in their modules and stand them on top on the bed they are going in. The reason i ask is because we have chickens and the raised bed we have just made are enclosed with net, to hopefully keep the girls off, if i were to just plated modules up and left them out they would be eaten! Hence the odd question of standing the modules in the netted raised beds.

[Alison]

I sow about 10 seeds to a 3" pot then pricked out into their own pots when big enough. They are able to get to a reasonable size by the time I plant out and are better able to cope with any slug etc damage. Also the pots will be at home where I can look after them better while they are babies rather than on their own at the lottie. I sow all brassicas line this except radish, turnips and swede which I just sow direct and thin out but any that I grow for the greenery seem to do better by this technique.


Sent from my iPad using Grow Your Own Forum

[Martin H]

I have read that brassicas do better when transplanted because it breaks the taproot so they make more fibrous roots. I guess in the wild they aren't used to such good soil as we give them, so the taproot is an advantage? Anyway, that's the story.

[Kristen]

Do you do these in the greenhouse??

You can do, but they don't like heat - so best not to use propagator for germination, and to keep them as cool as you can when they are growing. Outside would be good, but I find small things (in seed trays / modules) dry out very fast in even a light breeze. Coldframe, which you can prop open, might be best - if you have one, or something similarly open-but-sheltered.

Pigeons will be after them once they are small plants, and when the Cabbage White Butterfly arrives that will seek them out too - so you will need to keep an eye on them / protect them when they are outside.