Brassica report - how are you doing?

[Vince G]

Brassicas are a significant and enjoyable part of the diet of me and Mrs Vince - we love our greens! We should be eating some nice heads of calabrese and romanesco by now, but whilst the veg we'll be eating in winter and spring look healthy, anything that forms a flower head for consumption is woefully underperforming. In summary:

Red cabbages - fine, looking as though they're hearting up OK.

Calabrese - dreadful, lots of small sprigs with big loose buds which quickly flower, no tight heads at all.

Romanesco - again lots of loose sprigs but no heads

Caulis - much green growth, no heads to speak of.

EPS and EWS Broccolis - healthy, 2ft or so high.

Brussels - triffid-like!

Curly kale - healthy, 2 ft high.

Cavolo nero - healthy, 2 ft high.

Swedes - good green growth, bit early to assess roots.


What's going wrong? Is it really just the weather? All of these plants were grown in a fairly sheltered seedbed at home then transplanted to the allotment in mid-JUne, except swedes which were sown direct about the same time.

Any thoughts?

[Kestrel]

Yours sound better than mine but a similar story.

If my calabrese actually makes it past the vulnerable "slug snack" stage it has also been bolting before it reaches a decent size. My PSB looks healthy but is still quite small, caulis have been tiny.

Bright side, cabbages have been huge and rampant. Eating so much in soups, stewed and as coleslaw that I worry for my fellow passengers on the train.

[Florence Fennel]

Weather and snugs Vince and now we have the onslaught of the cabbage whites to look forward to!

[Bren In Pots]

Everything is on go slow
plus cattapillars are having a feast even though my brassicas are netted. spotted 2 of them crawling up on the outside of the netting yesterday.

Cavolo nero only 18inch high

Khol Rabi not swelling

calabrese no sprigs

Brussels are being eaten the most by slugs.

[Jamesy_uk]

Well, the Cavolo Nero that survived, all 5 of them lol are now a good 3ft tall which thick healthy leaves, other than that I have last chance winter cauli's and cabbages in pots waiting for them to put on a good 6-8 true leaves to give them a good chance of making it.

[Farmer_Gyles]

my summer broccoli is looking good, heads now about 3-4in wide, nowhere near as big as i want them, think they might burst into flower at any moment
summer cauliflowers / red cabbage have a lot of leaves, nothing in the middle yet
dwarf green kale is in large buckets, growing slowly, about 8in tall now

winter brassicas looking much better .... some of it sown later than the summer brassicas but grown bigger than the summer brassicas .... PSB is growing well, winter AYR is looking ok, black kale is looking good

the pigeons had a crack at the brassicas in the ground but not touched the ones in buckets .... caterpillars are on everything now .... i've used bug sprays and found some old derris dust that i'll be using this weekend ....
i tried pots of sage and chives and spring onions in between all the brassicas .... companion planting to deter the cabbage whites .... it didn't work ....
i have an old gazebo frame that i was going to use over the brassicas with netting attached, but not had any netting .... will definitely get some for next year tho ....

[lottie dolly]

we all live in hope of trying to grow something this year,
gave up on kale last year,white fly renders them no good 2 years running,
4th try at red cabbage,still got leaves on,but no growth,
another go at swede,planted out 60 + 3 types,sown in modules few days ago,
and ask for cauliflowers,it seems the favourit food of all things that fly and crawl,with no restriction on height lol,will forget it for this year,
2 goes at savoys,no good
for now in modules,cabbages,some for late winter,and some spring,the latter i will be growing in side the class houses again,in the boarders,where i can keep better control of the slimes ext,as per snadges idea ,the young leaves can be harvested a few at a time as they appear,

[Loudbarker1]

All caulis eaten weeks ago. Was jolly chuffed with one, 2nd sneared at by Mrs LB and third bolted before I ate it so ate the flower stalks instead.

Calibrase eaten as well: I don't like it much the ids eat it so I had to grow for them.

Red cabbage and Savoys heating up nicely: in fact first red cabbage could easily be picked anytime now. Bit longer for savoys, so successon planning working well.

Swede looking good but too early to really say whteher they will be a success. They are interplanted with PSB/WSB, and I will let you know in March about them.

Sowed turnips 3 weeks ago and they have mostly germinated and some have even escaped the slugs. I'm not sure if I'm growing them for roots or leaves yet.

Pretty well all of these (except the turnips) were sown in pots/modules. That plus nemaslug/full strength slug pellets seems to be the only way to have escaped slugs and snails this year. On the plus side there have been very few cabbage whites.

I may plant some spring cabbage in the next few weeks to put in mother's greenhouse bordsers after her toms are out.

[Rhona]

We're not massive brassica eaters in our house - except for PSB. Got three lots on the go - first lot got nibbled to the ground, but re-grew from the tiny stumps of leaf that were left. Second lot at home, about one foot tall. Third lot we took some spares from a neighbour, not faring too well.

[kentishgal]

My brussells and kale were doing really until the caterpillar invasion! (must remember to net stuff next year!!). I think Ive picked about a 100 off in the last 2 days and rather then be deterred they have just moved on to the nastertiums (picked about 50 off of these this morning alone!).

[Samurailord]

My winter brassicas are looking ok on the allotment where I have them netted off - PSB, Savoy Cabbage, Purple Curly Kale.

The Savoys that I planted out and neglected to net straight away have been pecked to bits by pigeons. They are now netted - live and learn I guess.

At home I have cavalo nero and curly kale - both about 2 foot high and slightly holy due to caterpillars - I am on a daily quest to remove them all.

Romanescue - some caterpillars but all about 2 foot high (the plants not the caterpillars )except one poor specimin that has been left as a sacrifice for the snails. One has bolted already, but the rest seem fine so far.

I am going to net the ones at home this weekend - better late than never.

My kohlrabi have refused to swell yet - hopefully they will do better at the allotment instead of my blow away.

Andy

[arpoet]

Like most, the spring planted Brassicas are a dead loss, but the slower growing winter cabbages and Kale are growing nicely. I was only thinking yesterday that the winter stuff will be ready before the summer stuff. THANK GOD FOR A BUMPER CROP OF RUNNER BEANS.
Roger

[Potstubsdustbins]

Calabrese either eaten of frozen, good crop this year.

Curly kale being eaten and growing strong.

PSB earliest being eaten later vareities looking good.

Caulis just starting to heart up, one eaten.

Spring cabbage nice 4" high seedlings.

Colin

[Thelma Sanders]

This year the early sown for summer cabbages snuffed it, one way or another! but all the stuff sown for autumn and winter is looking good - under the netting of course

It's been the first year, since I've had the plot, that I've had to buy cabbage to make coleslaw

[Normans Mum]

Well..... ALL our broccoli and calabrese did a Usain this year and bolted
Didn't even get so far as eating any of the heads off the 15 or so plants that were out there because every single one flowered!!
Curly kale doing very well, though. had some the other night, steamed with some mash and gravy....
Caulis are still babies and I'm a bit loathe to put them out-- can see the slugs and snails putting on their napkins and hear the gnashing of teeth even from the safety of the greenhouse