[Eblana]

Hi all, I went into Dublin City yesterday to bring my nieces who are staying with me to a tourist show.  I was passing an garden shop and outside they had a big box with bare root veg plants wrapped in wet news paper.  I remember as a child that my grandmother used to buy her plants this way (could even have been from the same shop as it has been there since the early 1900).  I decided to give them a go as I have a good bit of space coming free on the plot in the next couple of days and my own module  sown seed got fried the other week - I got Calabrese, Cabbage, sprouts, leeks, perpetual spinach, lettuce and peas all for a couple of Euro.  Has anyone had any experience with buying plants this way, is there anything that I need to do before planting (I am going to the plot to plant them this afternoon and have just kept them damp).

[mumofstig]

Buying Brassicas bare root is the easiest way to import clubroot to your plot 

The others should be fine 

[tosca100]

It's normal here. Even tomatoes are sold by the bunch in the markets. We generally have excllent growing conditions here though. It's a great sight, when the stacks of plants start to appear, beautifully arranged. If I wasn't particular about variety I would buy more and grow less from seed.

[jambop]

The best and most common and economic way to buy most plants down here and they are always first rate! Mum no nurseryman here would sell anything that had a transferable disease they depend on sale for their livelihood and would go down the pan if the did. The strangest thing I have seen sold bare rooted down here ... beetroot! I would not buy it as I grow from seed but the thought the would bolt came to mind?

[mumofstig]

That's as may be - but as I said, you can import it with bare root plants, and the RHS advice is not to do so.

It's up to you to decide if the supplier can be trusted to raise clean plants.

[Eblana]

The shop has been there for so long that I would trust them but I have hedged my bets and put all the brassicas in one raised bed.  I grow so few brassicas normally that not being able to use that bed for brassicas in the future if I did get club root wouldn't be the end of the world.  The plot looks great with all the beds planted up.

[Snoop]

I buy plug plants regularly, especially for autumn and winter brassicas. They're grown in modules in seed compost by commercial nurseries and are sold in their thousands. All I do is keep them damp in their newspaper wrapping till it's time for them to go out. I've kept them in good condition like that for three days and they'd probably last longer. I'm not sure that bare roots would last that long though.

Hope your bed stays club-root free Eblana. Like you, I love seeing everything come together at this time of year.

[ARPoet]

I used to buy and sell bare rooted wallflowers wrapped in wet newspaper a good few years ago. I seem to think that my flower wholsaler also sold veg plants the same way.

[mumofstig]

It's only the brassicas that are a potential problem.

I remember my mum buying bare root runner beans, and I still buy my wallflowers that way from the market 

[Salmo]

It used to be how everyone bought their brassica plants. Even if you grew them yourself they would be sown thickly in a nursery bed and pulled out ( not dug) to be planted. This broke the tap root and they grew bushy roots. Planted deep and given a good watering they flagged for a day or two but soon stood up and grew away rapidly. I think we tend to plant out brassicas too small these days.

My father used to grow brassicas in a nursery bed like thi,s but I cannot do so on my allotment because of flea beetle. But the father could plaster them with DDT or Derris powder.

[jambop]

It's only the brassicas that are a potential problem.

I remember my mum buying bare root runner beans, and I still buy my wallflowers that way from the market 

And sad to relate the wallflower is a... Brassica !

[mumofstig]

Yes, but they go in the tubs in the garden - not anywhere near the allotment 

[Eblana]

It used to be how everyone bought their brassica plants. Even if you grew them yourself they would be sown thickly in a nursery bed and pulled out ( not dug) to be planted. This broke the tap root and they grew bushy roots. Planted deep and given a good watering they flagged for a day or two but soon stood up and grew away rapidly.

They didn't have great roots and that did worry me a bit but this explains that.  I watered them in well yesterday and with the rain here today I will be lucky if they aren't swimming around the plot tomorrow