PERFECT WEATHER FOR BRASSICAS
COOLER TEMPERATURES SUIT THESE COOL SEASON VEGIES
THIS weekend’s blast of wintery weather will probably spell the end of any late warm season vegies that have been enjoying above average temperatures in our region over the last couple of months.
Say ta-ta to your tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, dwarf beans and sweet corn!
Last weekend, anticipating a cool change in the weather this week, I ended a self-imposed fallow period of about 10 weeks for my vegie patch, after earlier incorporating a quality aged compost and a locally produced soil improver, followed by a good layer of fine sugar cane mulch.
After a number of years of continuous production, it was time to give the tired soil a break, and the hot, dry conditions during March and April was simply not conducive to growing good vegetables at the time.
My expectation of producing a better quality, rested vegie patch was totally exceeded when I pulled aside the mulch to reveal a dark, beautifully structured, moist, worm laden soil, the likes of which I haven’t seen for a very long time!
Now I’m a big fan of planting my vegetables from seed wherever possible, as I think that seed-raised plants better adapt to the localised conditions and don’t suffer transplant shock when transferred from punnet to patch.
However, on seeing this beautiful soil so
ready for production, I hastened to my local plant nursery and grabbed a few punnets of cool season seedlings, so I could begin growing whilst my seeded plants were thinking about germinating.
My choices – English spinach, and three brassica varieties – Tuscan kale, Mini cauliflowers, and Baby Broccoli.
It’s the ideal time to grow brassicas in our region – cooler days and nights with soil temperatures dropping as well.
What choices do we have? Let’s concentrate on varieties that give us the quickest turnaround time and are space-savers as well.
The real sprinters of the brassica clan are the cabbages – particularly the smaller varieties such as ‘Sugarloaf ’ and ‘Greyhound’, which can produce tight, conical heads in as little as 56 days. Others to consider are ‘Early Jersey Wakefield’ (conical, 60 days), and ‘Mini’ (drumhead, 56-64 days).
Longer growing cabbages will produce larger heads, so try ‘Golden Acre’ (65-75 days), ‘Red Drumhead’ (70-80 days) and ‘Savoy Vertus’ (best for coleslaw! 80 days).
I’ve given up growing the “normal” varieties of broccoli, opting instead for the speedy baby broccoli or broccolini types.
They grow quickly, and usually produce plenty of smaller side-shoots for an extended harvest period.
One thing though, you must cut the florets before they even think about turning yellow and opening!
Best cut-and-come-again broccoli varieties are ‘Broccoli di Ciccio’ (side-shoots for up to 6 months), ‘Green Sprouting’, ‘Purple Sprouting’, and ‘Sprouting Red Arrow’.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of kale, but I grow it because my better half loves it either fried up for breakfast (with eggs!), steamed, or raw in a salad.
It’s pretty fast to get to harvest as you can pick some of the leaves when the plants are quite young (around 30 days).
One of the best tasting varieties is ‘Red Russian’, but there are many others of differing textures and colours from which to choose, including ‘Tuscan Black’ (an old favourite), ‘Blue Scotch’, ‘Red Winter’, ‘Dwarf Green Curled’, and ‘Jagallo Nero’.
Cauliflowers have a reputation for being quite slow to mature, some varieties such as ‘Phenomenal Early’ and ‘All Year Round’ taking over 100 days to reach harvest size.
Others are a little zippier, with ‘Snowball Improved’ and ‘Sixty Days’ reaching full size in about, well, sixty days! Many varieties need the developing heads shaded in order to stay a milky white colour, so choose ‘self-blanching” types (the inner leaves curl over the heads) or you may have to grab a few large leaves and tie or clip them together over the growing curd.
I suppose an article on growing brassicas should also include the polarising brussels sprouts, but many gardeners don’t wish to wait five to eight months to harvest these little “cabbages on a stick”.
They really only suit the cooler areas as the long growing season means they may end up sneaking into late spring or even summer, by which time they are the target of many warm season pests. If you must grow them, try ‘Drumtight’, ‘Long Island Improved’ or ‘Evesham Special’.
Most brassicas require a slightly acid to neutral soil (pH 6.0 – 7.0) enriched with plenty of good quality compost, and generous helpings of fertiliser and water in order to grow quickly without developing bitterness.
A handful of real blood and bone, and the same of sulphate of potash over each square metre of your brassica patch will help them reach maturity in good health. They are a fairly water-hungry bunch, so mulch well and irrigate consistently.
Common pests are the dreaded cabbage white butterfly, whose voracious green larvae are masters of looking like the veins of a leaf during the day, the cabbage moth, the larvae of which congregate on a leaf, skeletonising it overnight, and the sap-sucking grey aphid, producing offspring in greater numbers than Donald Trump’s tweets.
Embrace the cooler weather and get some brassicas into your garden this weekend!