How do you keep your PSB upright in wind?

[Millymollymandy]

I have had to stake everything in my garden from French beans to sweetcorn as the wind has been much worse in the last few years than it was previous to that (no global warming here, just a global wind problem )

However my PSB is a big problem, even the stakes are now at a 45 degree angle and the side shoots just keep snapping off all the time. My kale and their canes are leaning too.

We don't have a prevailing wind where I live as it comes from whichever direction it feels like but the last two years it seems to be always coming from the SW whenever it is a very windy day.

Just wondered what everyone else does? I won't have much left by spring at this rate.

[Millymollymandy]

I used to always stake against the north wind and these days I've had to move the canes to the other side.

Oh well I guess I'd better dismantle properly the runner bean frame and use the big hazel poles. A job for my OH. Yes last year they were still happy growing at a funny angle but the wind has been worse this year, so far!

Just when we have survived the battle of the caterpillars, and no bad blackfly attack this year - something else comes along to test us!

[Green Aura]

I don't stake at all! Even in our winds. But I do plant much closer together than most would suggest. In a one sq. metre bed I usually have 4 psb, half a dozen sprouts and as many cabbages as I can shove in the gaps - a couple of dozen? maybe more. The beds have double height boards which protect them until they're big enough. They get amazingly thick trunks (they're definitely not stems )

It grows to about a metre tall and has never fallen over yet - it's a bugger to dig out though

Oh and the cabbages don't get huge, but big enough for us.

[Millymollymandy]

Are your PSB all growing into each other then? Mine are about 1m2 in width each! (until the wind knocks off most of the branches!)

[Odsox]

Mine are about an inch tall at the moment and the only wind that troubles them is when I eat baked beans.
Mind you, it troubles everyone else as well.

[Green Aura]

I suppose so, but I've never had any trouble picking it. That's weird, I've never even considered that - although I don't think mine get that wide, maybe they go up more?

I only have to part them to get at the cabbages.

[happyigloo]

Mine are about 3 foot tall and seem to be fine - no stakes. They are in quite an exposed site. I suppose the worst of winds are to come but so far so good.

Don't think I could stake now - would hate to damage and root systems.

[Green Aura]

I haven't got any to photo this year (refer back to radish/mother debacle ) but they'd look pretty much like yours Susie at this point - quite tall but not very wide. We have no hens but there's not usually much growth low down. That's where we grow the cabbages.

[Millymollymandy]

Hmmm well mine have leaves/shoots coming out in all directions so there is not much room at ground level for cabbages, and now that they're leaning over they are taking up even more floor space. But there are no chooks in my veg patch!

I take it you didn't need to do caterpillar squidging GA?

[Green Aura]

Hmmpphh

[MKG]

How about growing a dwarf variety?

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

I didn't know there was such a thing!

[Peggy Sue]

I don't stake mine but have an overwhelming urge to plant too close so they are sort of at 45 degrees but supporting eachother as a block from total collapse....at the moment.
It does feel a bit like an ongoing sga though....the aphids then the caterpillars then the wind- just waiting for the rabbits with the shotgun!