Sowing Brassica Directly in the ground.

[Harasimow]

Does anyone here sow their bassica straight in the ground? How do you protect the young seedlings from slugs? Do you use seedbeds and holding beds or sow directly in their final places? How about in pots out in the open to be planted in the ground later in the year.

My space under glass is reserved for tomatoes, corn, runner beans, chitting spuds ect.

Im wanting to sow brussels, summer cabbage, winter cabbage, red cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower, broccoli, turnips and swedes.

Also of the above brassicas can any be left in pots/holding bed untill space become available from harvesting leguimes?

Any advice welcome

ta

[Flo]

I always sow brussels, summer cabbage, winter cabbage, red cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower and broccoli in trays and then prick them out into larger pots to let them get a good root system. However all of them need very firm ground in order to prosper and they also need a fairly large root system so you are not going to be able to keep any of them in pots for any great length of time. Especially the broccoli and red cabbage which have large above ground growth so need time to develop the balance underneath.

Turnips and swedes do best sown straight into the ground where they are to grown because they have quite long tap roots in proportion to what you see above ground.

You also need to be able to fertilise well and add lime for all the above crops a couple of weeks before planting in final position. Cauliflowers in particular are hungry feeders if you want to develop good heads.

Now it has taken me time and much training from better brassica growers than me to come up with that knowledge. I'd never grown this lot before 2007 and only got decent crops by asking a lot of questions and doing as I was told above. But that's what works for me - someone else may have another method that works for them of course because we are gardeners and all do things differently.

[Marc]

My father used to sow all his brassicas in a seed bed in the open ground but the reason I would advise against it is the dreaded clubroot. Many gardens that have had brassicas grown in then over the years have a clubroot problem and sowing them in sterile compost gives them a head start. You might be lucky but I wouldn't risk it.

[Flo]

If you have club root affected soil, you need to get club root resistant brassicas in order to make it worth growing the things at all Marc nowadays. You can get such things. It's one of those developments that has arisen to solve a problem (often lack of rotation of course).