Interplanting cabbages

[gardendancer]

Hi all.

When my potatoes come out, I was going to use the spot for winter cabbages and purple sprouting broccoli.

Both gets quite big, but are fairly small when planted out - so I was considering putting a small quick crop between them to use the space before they fill out.

My thoughts were dwarf french beans ( low and quick, 6 weeks plant to harvest) or maybe some lettuce. Also both can jsut be cut off when finished to not disturb the soil

Any thoughts?

[Alison]

I plant my winter cabbages etc out in June so way before I dig up my spuds so presume you'll be moving your brassicas from another bed? I'm not really convinced about inter planting with spuds generally but I probably plant mine more closely than some people. Would have thought that any earthing up would cause a problem (if you do earth up, I don't but the close planting helps with shading) and would have thought there would be quite a competition going on if you went for beans. Lettuce could work though maybe. I usually use the space between my brassicas for things like radish which are out the way and eaten in no time.


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[veggiechicken]

I'm growing some lettuces between some spuds - but I don't earth up, just plant them deep to start. I always interplant the big brassicas that are in the ground for months.
You can cut off any plant (lettuce, beans etc) and leave the roots in the soil if you're worried about disturbing the others..

[BertieFox]

Cabbages are supposed to be incompatible with French beans in companion planting advice I have read. All I can say is that I have two fairly reasonable cauliflower plants growing at the foot of some climbing French beans in the polytunnel (see my photo in 'What I did today' thread), so I would think it would be worth trying. Logically, beans would provide nitrogen to the soil in their root nodules which cabbages would enjoy.

At the very least, one of the two should flourish, and you will have plenty of time for the cabbages to go on growing after the beans are harvested.

[BertieFox]

You seem to have posted your query twice, but my reply is in the first posting.

[gardendancer]

My computer poltergeist has made sure I posted this query twice, is there a Moderator that could merge them? as there are answers in both already? Thank you

And thank you for the answers already received, would love to hear more experiences.

[veggiechicken]

Merged as requested
I've deleted your duplicate post too

[Potstubsdustbins]

Your getting good with that pointy stick VC very good.

Unfortunately Bertie the nitrogen thing has been disproved peas and beans use it themselves whilst maturing

[roitelet]

Cabbages do better in firm ground so planting after spuds would mean that you are planting into soft ground. Leeks might be a better bet.

[BertieFox]

Cabbages do better in firm ground so planting after spuds would mean that you are planting into soft ground. Leeks might be a better bet.

Sorry to disagree with you, but while this is true of many in the brassica family, especially things like sprouts and cauliflowers which do badly if they move around and have a weak root system, in my experiences cabbages do fine. The main objective is to get lots of leafy greens through quick growth, and soft well cultivated ground is fine for that.

You may be right if we are talking about autumn cabbage or savoys which need to develop large hearts, but I would have thought it would be too late for these after the spuds anyway.

Perhaps other brassicas like Pak Choy or Chinese cabbage and greens might do even better in this situation, particularly as they do particularly well from a summer sowing and being grown in autumn. Pak Choy will also stand well in the cold.

[Snadger]

I'm growing some lettuces between some spuds - but I don't earth up, just plant them deep to start. I always interplant the big brassicas that are in the ground for months.
You can cut off any plant (lettuce, beans etc) and leave the roots in the soil if you're worried about disturbing the others..

Life's too short for earthing up spuds!

[Two_Sheds]

When my potatoes come out, I was going to use the spot for winter cabbages and purple sprouting broccoli.

Not ideal.

Spuds are going to loosen the soil considerably as you dig them out, and brassicas need a really firm soil.
It'd be less work if you could put your brassicas somewhere that's not freshly turned over

[gardendancer]

Thank you all,
It's not ideal I know,

Last year i just popped whatever in anywhere. This year - as I'm growing a few more different things, I thought I'd try to group by type a bit more, to be a bit more systematic about rotating crops.

The other bed that could be come the brassica bed for this winter, does have cabbages in it now though, so it would mean - either taking the inconvenience of packing the soil down after the potatoes, or taking the chance of growing brassicas in the same spot for 2 years.