[johnfh]

I planted a tray full of swede seeds about six weeks ago and then put them, cramped up, in a shallow trench until I could get around to planting them out (yes I do know some say you shouldn't move them).  When I looked at them today they have made reasonable progress but about half of the plants have pretty little yellow flowers on them!  I presume this means they are going to seed.

My question is

1) Will they still produce swedes later if I plant them out as intended?
2) Why have they gone to seed so soon and what can I do to avoid this in future?

Any constructive advice welcome.

[Yorkie]

I don't grow swedes so if I'm wrong I know someone will correct me, but ...

I suspect that once they start to flower then you can write off the rest of the season.  With most veggies, their aim in life is to reproduce for the next season, and they do this by working through their life cycle to produce seeds.  Once they produce seeds then their job is done and they stop. 

I also suspect that yours may have done this either because of erratic temperature / weather conditions (were they indoors or outdoors at sowing and thereafter? - i.e. could have been too warm) or because you've stressed them out too much by cramping their style.

[Zippy]

What Yorkie says