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Sprouts

On 12th March 2010 Steve4444 asked:

Can anyone advise please; For the past 2 years I have tried to grow spouts, cabages and cauliflowers but all have failed. They grow but the caulies tend to just grow upwards, the sprouts fail to actually produce sprouts even though the actual plant grows well and the cabages just dont grow to any useful size. I wonder if I need to add something to the soil. What type of soil shoul I have and what if anything should I add.

I have no problems in growing things like garlic, onoins sweetcorn potatoes etc so i fear it is a class problem.....

Thanks

Answers

On 12th March 2010 w00dy answered:

Also make sure they are firmed in well and if on a windy site stake them, they all suffer from wind rock, becuase of thier large leaves they act like sails in the wind and move about quite a bit in the soil this causes some of the root system to become detached which in turn limits the amount of water/nutrient intake and leaves you with smaller plants.

Also as the other guys have suggested, add plenty of humus and check your soil PH as if its too acid could cause problems.

Why not try growing the cabbages where you grew beans or any legumes last year. The legumes have nodules on their roots caused by a symbiotic batceria that can fix the nitrogen in the air onto the soil thus making it available to the plant, nitrogen helps leaf growth so this system is well practaced.

Hope this helps.

On 12th March 2010 motherveggie answered:

I dont like putting links very much but there is far to much info for me to put int here ..it is possible that club root is causing your problem too have a read of this ..it may help ..

www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/brassicas/Plasmodiophora-brassicae-club-root.php

apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?PID=128