Any suggestions for my cabbage and broccoli?

[RyNJ]

I don't think they're going along how they should. I started them both from seed in mid June and transplanted them by the beginning of July. By now only a few cabbages seem ready to head, and the broccoli seem nowhere near ready. I know they're cool weather so do they, like, take off once the temp drops? Anyone have suggestions on how to move them along?


this is thus far my largest cabbage and one of the few that seems almost ready to head.


size of most of my cabbages. small.


largest broccoli, with no sign of head in sight

I don't have a pic of the rows, but I'll take one once the storm passes, in case spacing or something's the problem.

[TWC015]

Your plants are not close to being mature. You wouldn't want them to mature at that size either. You would not have anything worth eating.

The plants do seem to be small for their age. There could be several factors to this. I need more information, such as fertilization/soil amendments, watering frequency and amount to help determine why they haven't grown as much. Also, how far apart are the rows and plants in the rows? They look a little crowded, which would also slow growth. I usually plant broccoli about 1.5 feet apart, and cauliflower and cabbage 2 feet apart. I space the rows 3 feet apart. Brassica roots spread far close to the surface of the soil.

The heat is probably one factor why they haven't grown much, but they still should be larger.

This is how large they should look when the plants are heading. I took these pictures from my plants earlier this year.

Broccoli:

Cauliflower:

To give and indication of how large these are, I planted the broccoli and cauliflower plants 2 feet apart in the row and the leaves from one plant are touching another.

[cynthia_h]

It looks like they were planted when the weather was too hot for them. They're doing the best they can, but you'll get better results by planting new ones *now.*

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[rainbowgardener]

cynthia beat me to it, but that was my thought exactly. You could keep the ones you have and they may start doing better with cool weather, but they are pretty exhausted from going through the heat. If it were me, I would plant seed and start over with new ones.

[RyNJ]

Thank you all for your suggestions! I'm gonna pull them and try some new seed tonight. We had a hot summer, and a week and a half in late July of EXTREME heat, during which all of my plants looked pretty near drooped-to-death during the day. Followed by 2 weeks of nonstop rain, and then Irene when my garden and entire yard was already a swamp.

When I was able to control the water I watered them each day, and every 2 weeks hit them with compost tea. I had also worked some compost into the beds before I put the seedlings in.

From what you're saying, TWC, I have them way too close. I was being greedy and crowding them, clearly to no avail. I don't have much space, but I'm gonna settle for much fewer plants that actually grow.

This of course depends upon if I actually get them to grow, but if I plant red cabbages can they be stored successfully over the winter as green cabbages can be?