brocolli failed

londonTiger

I bought a beginner seed kit full of easy to grow plants (onions, leeks, parsnips, brocolli, cabbage, brussell sprouts etc).

All have grown apart from brocolli. Brocolli sprouted, grew 5cm tall - then I put them outside in the sun and they haven't seem to survive the shock from being moved from indoors to outdoors.

Is it common for brocolli to fail like this?

Farway

No, but did you harden them first, or were they scorched in the sun?

madjackslam

Were the cabbages and brussel sprouts OK? If so, then it's just one of those things that happens, and I'd just try again with any remaining seeds. Sow them outdoors now - if they're purple sprouting, then hurry up, because they do need a long season.

londonTiger

madjackslam wrote: »

Were the cabbages and brussel sprouts OK? If so, then it's just one of those things that happens, and I'd just try again with any remaining seeds. Sow them outdoors now - if they're purple sprouting, then hurry up, because they do need a long season.

thanks, it's probably a bit too late to seed them now. I've planted the seeds in February and they're still quite small so God knows how much they'll grow by November after I plant them now.

I will just buy some grown brocolli from b&q if they have them.

modoos

you definitely need to harden them off first, take them out in the day and back in night then, you've got to do that for a while otherwise its a big shock for the plants. they arnt used to the cold chilly nights, they will harden after a week or so. hope this helps

londonTiger

managed to get 8 seedlings of brocolli for £2.13 from b&q. I got the last one so some of them are quite small - understandable as the big ones were probably picked up.

They are kept outdoors in their open air garden centre so should be ready hardened.

sgun

broccoli don't really like to be transplanted, they often have a tendency to bolt. Purple sprouting you will get away with but the calabrese types are much more fussy.

lisa110rry

I have each of my brocolli seedlings covered in its own personal "greenhouse" - a PET bottle with the cap and bottom removed. Mind you this was more to keep the pigeons off them than anything else...

twiglet98

My experience of purple sprouting broccoli over the last three years is that it takes forever to get to the point where it's edible - and very delicious too - and within about 10 days every plant flushes with yellow flowers and the purple part was so short-lived I wonder why I turned so much space over to them. Why DO they bolt so rapidly? In previous years I've had them in raised beds near the house, where they were watered more often than the current 'blown' crop on the open plot at the far corner of the garden, but they still flowered ridiculously soon after forming spears. I used a very fine mesh to keep the butterflies and pigeons off, having had massive problems with both in the past.

londonTiger

twiglet98 wrote: »

I used a very fine mesh to keep the butterflies and pigeons off, having had massive problems with both in the past.

Get a cat, our garden is now effectively a no fly zone for pigeons, they know that a cat lurks in our garden and dare not land in it.

Before we got the cat our garden would get raided with pigeons.

twiglet98

londonTiger wrote: »

Get a cat, our garden is now effectively a no fly zone for pigeons, they know that a cat lurks in our garden and dare not land in it.

Before we got the cat our garden would get raided with pigeons.

Oh I've never been without a cat - this time last year I had four (two oldies sadly put down last June and this April, one missing without trace since October) - the one I have now is rather too keen on little songbirds but completely ignores the pigeons. I have farmland or woodland on three sides and am overrun with the blessed things, and with poultry in the garden so there's always food that they can steal, the population thrives. They start to build nests in the barn each year but when the swallows return they divebomb the pigeons until they relocate out to the leylandii. Someone used to shoot them up behind us on Saturday afternoons but I haven't seen him in a while.

The super fine mesh sheet was £14.99 in the garden centre last year. I draped it over a frame and pegged it down using the eyelets around the reinforced edges, and it kept all the flying pests off, feathered and otherwise.