Brassica snapshot

In early April it was time for me to plant my winter crop of brassicas. Here I tell you what I did, and what I didn' t do, and why, adding some thoughts about planting seedlings along the way. Those who want to know more about sowing and planting vegetable seedlings might find this snapshot of what I did that afternoon a useful read.

Timing

Many people plant their broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage seedlings (I will refer to them as brassicas - their family name) a lot earlier than I do. But please don't be led too much by what seedlings are available in nurseries. These days most vegetable seedlings are produced by large seedling growers on the mainland that on average do a great job, but they produce seedlings largely unaware of what the best time is for planting in Western Australia or North Queensland or Tasmania.

The Food Garden Group's Food Garden Calendar may not be right 100% of the time, but it recommends what to do in the food garden each month in Tasmanian conditions. It can be a good guide for timing your food gardening activities throughout the year.

It is not wrong to plant brassica seedlings in early March, except that you make life a lot harder than it need be for yourself and for your seedlings. In February and March Cabbage White Butterflies, Aphids slugs, snails and Whiteflies are all enjoying the Tasmanian summer and will be very interested in your young juicy seedlings. You will either have to keep them away or spray regularly to make sure your seedling survive.

If you would wait until the first week of April, especially after the first autumn rain, most pests are gone or on their last legs, and the task is much lighter.

My rule for buying seedlings

Normally I sow brassicas in the first week of March. They are then ready for planting out in early April. For more info about sowing see Sowing in Pots and Punnets on the Food Garden Group blog. 

This year, however, I did not get the time to sow my own, so off to the nursery I went as soon as I returned from holidays at the end of March. I knew from previous experiences that in early April there are still plenty of brassica seedlings for sale.

Which ones to choose? My rule: Avoid the biggest seedlings. Buy the smallest healthy-looking ones! 

It may be tempting to buy the biggest seedlings because why not have the most-advanced plants? Well, the reason is roots. Eight or ten large seedlings with well developed root systems in a small punnet will be much harder to disentangle than small seedlings that are just starting out. Large seedlings coming from punnets that were one enormous root ball often lose a lot of their roots when you separate them and have a much longer recovery time once put in the ground. Some will not survive the ordeal.

I look for seedlings that have just developed their first set of adult leaves. Most plants, when they germinate, first develop a set of juvenile leaves, baby leaves, whatever you want to call them (they are the rounder ones in the photo below), and subsequent sets of leaves look quite different. Here is an example:

Separating seedlings

Brassica seedlings are very resilient, very tough, and April is still warm enough to allow seedlings to recover rapidly after having been transplanted, but you want seedlings to come out of punnets with ideally all the roots they developed. I was able to achieve that with the lot below because the roots in the punnet were not yet entangled:

With so few roots in the punnet it was easy to separate these seedlings into eight lots:

Actually, I now had eight lots of two seedlings. That happened because most seedling growers, in the mechanised process of sowing, sow two seeds per hole to increase the chances that eight seedlings will germinate. In this particular case the seed must have been fresh, and germination was 100%.

You may want to take advantage of that full germination and try to get 16 seedlings for the price of 8. I didn't do that because if you try to separate these pairs you may damage the roots too much. No, for each of these pairs I cut off at ground level the weakest of the pair. I now had eight seedlings with all their roots intact.

Planting seedlings in my garden

So where to plant these seedlings in my garden?  I am very much into crop rotation in my garden (see The importance of rotating crops on the Food Garden Group blog), so these brassicas should go in the bed where until recently I had peas (in spring) and then beans (in summer).  These crops added nitrogen to the soil, so things are now ready for 'big eaters' like brassica. 

I then add compost and complete organic fertiliser (COF - see blog post Complete Organic Fertiliser on the Food Garden Group blog) and that will create the right environment for these brassicas to become a slow growing success story over winter. The Broccoli will be ready in August. Cauliflower will follow a bit later. Cabbages take the longest. They may be ready in late September.

Before going on holidays for a fortnight in March I removed the bean plants in one area, weeded it thoroughly, added COF and compost and raked that in. Now, three weeks later, I dug a small hole for each brassica seedling, put a bit of COF in each hole, mixed it in with the soil, and then planted the seedling. I then added some Seasol (a brand of seaweed extract) to a watering can full of water, mixed it in, and watered each seedling with this mix. The Seasol will help the seedlings in their recovery.

Planting seedlings in pots

The beans in two of my beds are not quite finished yet, so I decided to plant my brassica seedlings in pots. I will then transfer the seedlings out of their pots into the garden when my beans have finished. 

One seedling per pot will be quite happy there for 3 or 4 weeks. Provided I plant out these seedlings well before they become pot-bound, they will be as advanced as the seedlings that were planted in the garden. 

For potting mix I use compost from my compost heap with coir (pulverised coconut hull) added for water retention, and vermiculite added to aid drainage.

And then I gave all seedlings a liquid booster

Always, whenever you put plants in new pots or out into the garden it is a good move to end with a gentle watering with a can of water with seaweed extract. On their leaves please!  This helps plants in their recovery.

Last, but not least

Always protect your seedlings from marauding birds, keen mice and wild life. Some years ago I bought a whole lot of wire waste baskets that I still use every time I plant vulnerable plants in my food garden (see the photo at the top of this blog post). 

Unfortunately these wire waste baskets are not for sale anymore. Or are they?  If you come across some, snap them up! They are very useful for use in the food garden. And tell us where you found them, so we can buy some too.

Other forms of protection may of course do an equally good job or even better.

 

There is a series of articles on the Food Garden Group blog that takes you on a trip around the food garden for every month of the first twelve month when you start growing food. Really handy! That series starts here.

Have a great time in your winter garden,

Max Bee