Psb

[Farmer_Gyles]

picked up some PSB "rudolph" from T&M (freebie pack)
says sow april to june, harvest january onwards
is it too late to sow it now in the greenhouse and plant out later?

[Two_Sheds]

Probably. My PSB are 2ft tall now - robust enough to face the winter.

Plants won't grow much in the shortened daylight hours of autumn. You can have a go, but don't waste all your seed/compost on an experiment

[Farmer_Gyles]

cheers TS - i'll try a few to see what happens - learning more and more all the time!

[Two_Sheds]

I find the best way to do things at the right time (roughly) is to organise my seeds by Month.
(I opened my file marked August, and I see I have to sow some Pak Choi, Spring Cabbage and Chinese Cabbage.)

[tootles]

I have just sown a load, mine were eaten by the evil bunnymonsters. We shall be in the same boat! I am hoping that they will grow enough before winter sets in.
Fingers crossed.......

[Farmer_Gyles]

TS - this year i've had 3 8ft x 8ft beds at home, which is roughly 50% more than i had last year, but still not had a lot of space for growing, hence not much variety - but i have the allotment now so will be doing the sowing by month thing ....

tootles - good luck - we might get lucky!

[NSB]

Can someone please tellme what a psb is?

[butter fingers]

psb by my thinking will beeeeeeeeee PURPLE SPROUTING BROCOLLI !

[Demeter]

Yes it is. (PSB = purple sprouting broc, I mean)

Mine - also Rudoplph, also free - is well over 2 foot high, a big, thick-stemmed plant, has been in since about May, showing no signs of anything but leaves and caterpillars right now. Personally, I find it hard to imagine that anything sown now could catch up, but you never know I suppose - and the seeds were free!

[rustylady]

picked up some PSB "rudolph" from T&M (freebie pack)
says sow april to june, harvest january onwards
is it too late to sow it now in the greenhouse and plant out later?

Give it a go. Sow a few in celltrays and then plant out when big enough. It's probably a bit late but if you have space on the lottie try them. If they don't crop you can always compost them.

[Snadger]

That's the beauty of having chooks. They are worthy recipients of all my failures. In fact I am starting to purposely grow failures just to keep em happy.
Any seeds I have left over, of almost any veg, that I don't think will be viable next season go in the ground this season round about NOW just for chook food if nothing else!

[Two_Sheds]

That's the beauty of having chooks. They are worthy recipients of all my failures.

ditto guinea pigs. although their eggs aren't as good

[di]

I was treated to a guided tour of our lottie's genius grower's plots~he seems to have more success than anyone along with years of experience.He's also given us various brassica seeds that he left to self seed~advising me to plant some now & save some for future sowing saying that those planted now should have time to get a bit of growing done before winter & if they don't finish growing plants will lay dormant over the colder months & then carry on growing(with a headstart)once it gets warmer.
I guess in nature the seeds are "sown" as soon as the pods dry & the wind blows them to the ground & before we started rigid propogating that's how plants have survived!
Our best(almost a monster)courgette plant is from a seed that must've laid dormant in the soil from last year~it's a real monster growing more like a pumpkin & just as we think it's done we notice the next trail!but anyway,it's doing just as well,better than those that we lovingly nurtured in the greenhouse thru to outside.
So my conclusion of that long waffle is!!~pay attention to sow dates some of the time but also take a few hints from nature & if seeds were free or cheap then don't be scared to experiment!

[Two_Sheds]

...also take a few hints from nature & if seeds were free or cheap then don't be scared to experiment!

agreed. Self-sowns always seem stronger than the ones I sow deliberately! I let my Rusty lettuce sow itself now.

However, the slugs and rot will take a lot ... a plant will produce 100s or 1000s of seed, and only a few will become good plants (unless we're talking about weeds, then every darn one will take)

[gemlady]

Well I did have some lovely PSB plants and they were looking rather good, but they have been dessimated by caterpillars I did start to take them off when I had chance but they've just chomped their way through the lot (not that there were many to start with). So think I will pull them up (note to self to cover with fine netting next year) and put something else in their place.