"Rescuing" the veggies. What to do?!?!

[Farmer_Gyles]

So this year has been really poor for the veggies .... cold, wet, most veg small and late or a complete failure .... I sowed and planted loads of brassicas .... I should have had loads of broccoli, cauliflower etc, but so far had a grand total of just 2 heads of broccoli .... and everything else left looks miserable, poor .... my biggest cauliflower had a 4in head and has started rotting .... the next biggest got to 2in and now has 2 baby heads ....

What can I do to save the other veggies (esp brassicas) and try and get a crop from them?

What I have in the ground is roughly:
1 Romanesco cauliflower, 4in wide, looking good - don't want this to suddenly rot like the white cauli
1 Violetta cauliflower, 2in, looking ok so far
1 Violetta cauliflower, looks like it's "blown", with the head kind of "sprouting"
Several black kale, about 15in high - have had this over 3ft high in the past, still looks very small
Several cabbages (for harvest autumn just gone) that are nothing more than leaves and stalks (where pigeons have feasted) - no heads on them at all
Some spring cabbages that are nothing more than a few small leaves
Loads of All Year Round cauliflower, one with a rotting head, one with a double "baby" head, and the rest little more than a few small leaves

In pots, we have:
red cabbage - no heads, just the first few leaves
Curly green dwarf kale - still small, but we'll pick some leaves next weekend
Loads of PSB - some is labelled as ready to harvest in January, but no signs of any broccoli on them yet, just leaves
More cauliflower - just leaves

Is it too late to get a harvest from any of these??
Is it worth trying to cloche the ones in the ground? If so, any tips on making individual cloches for single plants?
I'm clearing out hte greenhouse this week - is it worth moving some of the pots inside the greenhouse?
Or am I better off scrapping the lot and hoping for a better year next year?

[alldigging]

Anything cabbagey that's really rubbish cut the head off and put a cross in the stem. It might bring you some leaves to eat.

[Farmer_Gyles]

I've got a few small leaves - what I want is cauliflowers and broccoli .....

[Two_Sheds]

what I want is cauliflowers and broccoli .....

[roitelet]

Spring cabbage may over winter and give you spring greens in the spring. PSB produces loads of leaves and only the broccoli bits shortly before harvest. You could try taking some of the pots into the greenhouse and see what happens.

[northepaul]

Sorry Gyles but all I can say is join the club!!

I dont have ANY brassicas left AT ALL after 4 consecutive sowings! I have two lines of leeks, one of which looks terrible and the other is maybe 50/50 - to last me the winter...

[Farmer_Gyles]

HOW DARE YOU SWEAR AT ME!

we don't like tescos, prefer sainsburys, but would much rather get our veg from the garden ....

[Farmer_Gyles]

PSB produces loads of leaves and only the broccoli bits shortly before harvest.

So .... there is a little bit of hope still .....

[Farmer_Gyles]

Sorry Gyles but all I can say is join the club!!

I dont have ANY brassicas left AT ALL after 4 consecutive sowings! I have two lines of leeks, one of which looks terrible and the other is maybe 50/50 - to last me the winter...

my leeks are looking healthy .... they look like massive blades of grass at the moment .... i don't know if they'll thicken up in the holes yet .... the holes have been at least partially filled with soil due to the sheer amount of rain we've had .... can only hope .....

[chris]

I've had a terrible year - the only thing that did well for me was pumpkins. But then I dug in a knees depth work of muck/compost/green waste.

Now, I don't get too hard up about it - I know you're on a route to be as self sufficient as possible (and, I too would like to be don't get me wrong!) - there's always next year - even if stuff fails, at least you're outside Beats being stuck being a PC anyway, IMHO.

[Farmer_Gyles]

is there anything i can do to protect the romanesco cauliflower? it's planted in the ground, the head is about 4in wide - i don't want it to suddenly rot like the white all year round cauliflower has ....

[kathyd]

I'm not sure what it is that causes the heads to rot on a cauli? Do they get too wet? Some kind of fungus? Something else? If it's because they get too wet, can you cover them? I use plastic electric cable trunking / tubing stuff to make hoops over my raised beds, I'm sure you could make small versions with these by cutting them to length for individual plants. I've also recently discovered some greeny coloured plastic tubing in a garden centre which is similar but slightly thinner and more bendy, and which is specially designed for cloches - but I don't know if it's available in the UK or not. Failing this, presumably garden wire would do the trick? And covered with polythene (buy off the roll) or garden fleece? I'd move the ones in pots inside anyway, although then of course they'll wilt when the sun comes out (like mine ). I have a couple of 2" violettos in the tunnel and a couple of romanesco with just leaves. My outside ones have all rotted / been shredded by slugs. Ditto my cabbages - got a few summer cabbages, but the rest were eaten almost to the stalk before I picked them. I've now put most of my spring cabbages in the tunnel for safe(r) keeping, and I'm spending a lot of time with my fingers crossed... I still get pests in the tunnel of course, but the bad weather is easier to deal with in there and it's easier to keep an eye on the creepy crawlies.. I squished loads of cabbage butterfly caterpillars in the tunnel the other day, despite the frosty weather / rain / wind we're having at times! Good luck anyway - I'm hoping for better weather and better results next year!