Week 52+24 - Bed EX6

Week 52+21 - Bed EX6

Week 52+7 - Bed EX6

We left the remains of the harvested cabbage plant in the garden, hoping that this tall plant will produce a number of smaller heads.

The Purple Sprouting Broccoli at the south end of the bed has produced a central flower bud that is quite wide and segmented (though barely visible in this blurry photo). This might be due to damage caused by caterpillars earlier in the season.

Another broccoli plant has produced a more typical central bud.

Week 52+5 - Bed EX6

The hardy brassicas have been unaffected by the winter frost, wind and rain, except for a few plants that are leaning a bit more.

The Thousand Headded Kale has produced a huge number of strong shoots that can be harvested and cooked whole (though they tend to be a bit tough)

This Purple Sprouting Broccoli plant had it's central flower bud harvested weeks ago and has now produced a great secondary crop of shoots.

The Gortahork Cabbage has grown very big and we harvested it today. The head was not as full and compacted on the inside as we had expected, but this might be common for this variety.

Some of the sprouts have been harvested but there are still more to eat.

Week 49 - Bed EX6

All of the brassicas in this bed are growing well in the late autumn weather.

One of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli has produced a central flower head, which is earlier than expected ...

... the Gortahork Cabbage continues to grow ...

... and Brussels Sprouts are almost ready for harvesting.

Week 47 - Bed EX6

The caterpillar season has ended! Most of the brassicas seem relatively unaffected, but a few are very stunted.

The Gortahork Winter Cabbage is starting to form a head. This should get quite large, judging by the size of the plant, and will be ready to harvest later in the winter.

Week 40 - Bed EX6

The lone sprouting broccoli plant in the foreground is still a major focus of the caterpillars' attention. It is tempting to remove this one plant and use the space to plant some overwintering broad beans.

The Thousand Headed Kale plants (viewed from above) are very vigorous and have reached well over 100cm tall ...

... and one of the Gortahork Cabbages is very strong as well.

The three sprouting broccoli plants are less vigorous, partially due to the continual munching by caterpillars, and the Brussels Sprouts (one visible in lower right) are not very big either, and will not produce a substantial crop.

In between the towering brassicas, there is still part of a row of leeks that we never got around to transplanting. Some of them are tiny, but a number of them have grown reasonably large, and are almost the same size as the plants that were transplanted to wider spacing.

Week 38 - Bed EX6

Apart from a few of the plants that have been continuously eaten by caterpillars the plants in this bed are growing well.

The caterpillars continue to regenerate and cause more damage to some plants, especially the Purple Sprouting Broccoli ...

... but a most of the plants are virtually untouched, including the Gortahork Cabbage ...

... the Brussels Sprouts ...

... and the Thousand Headed Kale, which have become very big.

Week 36 - Bed EX6

This plant has been really damaged by the caterpillars! Each week we destroy all that we can find, but more take their place.

Substantial sections of most of the leaves have been eaten.

Week 35 - Bed EX6

The Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli plant in the foreground was not transplanted (it was much too big to move and we left it in the original position) but it has been attacked by caterpillars (below).

Caterpillars have appeared on a number of the plants and we picked them off and squished them.

But some of the plants have been untouched.

Week 33 - Bed EX6 Planting

We removed most of the brassica plants and transplanted some back into the bed at a wider spacing. There are still a few rows of leeks remaining, they will be transplanted as soon as we dig another bed for them. Into the empty space of the bed we transplanted three large plants each of:

• Thousand Headded Kale - a tough, extremely vigorous variety growing up to 1.2m
• Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli - early variety producing many purple spears from early March
• Darkmar 21 Brussels Sprouts - a early variety producing large, dark green sprouts in Oct-Dec
• Gortahork Cabbage Winter - large drumhead landrace variety form Co. Donegal, which grows up to football size and is very hardy

There are still a few plants in the south end of the bed and we will try to find somewhere to transplant them. We are going to leave one of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli Plants where it originally grew as it is too big to transplant, it will be interesting to see how it compares to the ones that were transplanted.


The crinkled leaves and stark white leaf structure of the recently transplanted Gortahork cabbage is very striking.

The Thousand Headed Kale plants are wilting a bit after transplanting, which is to be expected when transplanting, especially plants this big.

Week 31 - Bed EX6

After being abandoned for most of the month of July, this bed has become terribly overgrown, with the exception of the north end of the bed where the swede has failed to emerge (or has been eaten). All of the remaining brassicas and leeks should have been transplanted when they were much smaller. We will have to pull quite a few out as we do not have the space to transplant them all.

Some of the calabrese have formed a head, though the size has been limited by the crowded conditions ...

... and some have already gone to flower and will be pulled out.

The leeks are growing well, especially the Monstruoso di Carentan even though they have become very crowded. We need to transplant them soon.

Week 27 - Bed EX6

The brassica plants have been thinned, and some have been transplanted, but we need some more beds prepared to plant the rest into.

The three rows of Monstruoso di Carentan variety of leeks is doing exceptionally well. They seem to have been sown more thickly than the other varieties, and all of the seedlings are growing quickly.

Week 26 - Bed EX6 Planting

We pulled up all of the arugula which was badly eaten by flee beetle and the spinach which was bolting and replaced it with:

• Magres Swede (several seeds at 16 stations) - a purple top variety, with firm yellow flesh, medium size, stores well

Week 25 - Bed EX6

View of the north end of the bed from above with arugula to the left, spinach in the middle and leek seedlings on the right.

Six week old spinach plants already bolting (going to seed) due to the dry conditions, followed by a hot spell. Spinach can be a very tricky plant to grow if the conditions are not right.

Leek seedlings up and doing well, if a little crowded.

Healthy brassica seedlings - in fact too healthy. They have really grown in the last week and are becoming too crowded. Unfortunately there is not yet enough beds dug to transplant everything!

These closely spaced brassicas should have been thinned more.

Week 24 - Bed EX6

After 5 weeks all of the plants are growing strong.

View of the brassica seedlings from above. They need to be thinned, so that each plant has more space to grow.

The arugula is growing well, but has many holes in the leaves caused by flee beetles. These tiny beetles can affect all of the brassica family plants, but only the arugula has been affected. Perhaps this is due to a natural higher susceptibility of this plant, turning it into a sacrificial crop, or it could be that the recent weather conditions have not suited the arugula and has weakened the plants.