Brassicas - plug plants and protection

[Mrs Jackson]

Firstly, after losing all my seedlings to caterpillars, I'm thinking about ordering some plug plants off the internet (our local GCs only have cabbages left). Does anyone have any recommendations about where to buy from? I'd like at least 10 purple sprouting broccoli and probably some cauliflowers and cabbages as well. I'm quite happy to purchase them either as part of a collection or separately. If there's anywhere that has a good selection of overwintering onion sets and garlic bulbs too that would be a bonus as it'd save on postage costs!

Secondly, would 12mm mesh be fine enough to keep the butterflies off or does it need to be finer? If so, how fine? I couldn't find any net curtains in the charity shop but I've found a roll of 12mm mesh in the shed. I don't want to lose any more plants though so if it's no good I'll go and get something better. Also do I need to use root collars on all the plants or are some types more prone to cabbage root fly than others? Is there a way to make them myself rather than buying them?

Any help would be most appreciated!

Mrs J

[amandaandherveg]

My neighbour and I had all our brassicas munched last year so resorted to ordering plants as replacements. Just ordered some last night from the same chap as last year - his plants are really, really good and very established and healthy.

eBay UK Shop - FARMER ARNOLDS BARN: GARDENING, BRASSICA VEG PLANTS, TARPAULINS

Was planning on using these guys for onions and garlic but would be interested to hear if anyone has spotted better deals before I order:

http://www.shrubs.co.uk/index.asp?function=SEARCH

[broadway]

Hi amandaandherveg,

out of interested what did you order?

[amandaandherveg]

Hi amandaandherveg,

out of interested what did you order?

I went for the selection of 100, 20 each of 5 plants for £12.50. I chose:

Best of All Cabbage
Christmas Drumhead
Autumn Giant Cauliflower
January King Cabbage
Vertus Savoy

These will be split between my garden, my neighbour's garden that I look after and the walled garden that my friend Mariell and I have recently taken over. They're usually generous with their plants, always way more in the package than I ordered.

[ladylottie]

My neighbour and I had all our brassicas munched last year so resorted to ordering plants as replacements. Just ordered some last night from the same chap as last year - his plants are really, really good and very established and healthy.

eBay UK Shop - FARMER ARNOLDS BARN: GARDENING, BRASSICA VEG PLANTS, TARPAULINS

Was planning on using these guys for onions and garlic but would be interested to hear if anyone has spotted better deals before I order:

Stephen H Smith's Garden Centres - Plants, garden furniture, tools

Hi. I ordered 50 Senshyu Yellow Autumn Onion sets for £2.50, and 2 bulbs (approx 30 cloves) of Solent White garlic for £3.65 from Kings Seeds. See their website at Kingseeds - Home

They were posted to me very quickly and the garlic bulbs are huge!

I ordered from Kings Seeds because a lot of people on this forum were recommending them. I will certainly be ordering more stuff from them.

[oldie]

Another vote for Kings. D T Brown do a range of plug plants and Defland offer Organic grown ones but I have not used them and have not checked prices.

[Mrs Jackson]

Thanks for the links everyone, I'm just checking them all out.

Any idea on the 12mm mesh or the root collars?

Mrs J

[planesailing]

I recieved my PSB collection the other week from:

Organic Plants - Home Page

I would recommend them, they supplied me with my squashes earlier in the year which have done well.

I ordered my garlic from The Garlic Farm for all things garlic which is due in September and I ordered my onions from Tuckers Seeds - Gardeners, Growers as I was ordering some seeds also.

[hamsterqueen]

I bought some psb fron the same place as plain sailing. They were good healthy plants and arrived quickly. Ive bought onion sets and grlic from Wilkinsons.

I am thinking of enviromesh for my brassicas. It's quite expensive but lasts a long time.

[planesailing]

I have read that you can use scaffolding debris netting in place of enviromesh. I am not sure if the holes are bigger or smaller, but it does seem cheaper than enviromesh.

[Gela]

Envrimesh

I have read that you can use scaffolding debris netting in place of enviromesh. I am not sure if the holes are bigger or smaller, but it does seem cheaper than enviromesh.

Where do you get enviromesh? I had never heard of it??

[oldie]

Harrod horticultural, LBS Garden Warehouse, Kays Discount and others all sell enviromesh. You have just missed a special offer at Harrod Horticultural. It is not cheap which is why many use scaffold netting from E-Bay and find it does a good job.

[planesailing]

You can find Enviromesh here, which is where I got mine.

The Organic Gardening Catalogue

Debris Netting here:

Tarpaulin Debris Netting and Scafold Sheeting

[Gela]

Thanks a lot - you learn something new every day