[Beetroot queen]

Put my spring cabbage in ages ago same time as they came in at the GC and I picked a huge one last weekend

Are they not meant to be spring cabbage

Or am i missing the plot, I was thinking great cabbage in march 

[crh75]

When did you plant them?

With the warm September and October we have had and having put them in very early they have obviously had enough time to grow. I didn't plant my spring cabbages out until the end of August to they have a long way to go yet.

I find most cabbages will work at almost any time of year. 

[Salmo]

Many varieties of cabbage can be sown in May/June and planted out in July to mature in the Autumn/early Winter, or sown July/August and planted out October to mature April/May. Very useful because you only have to buy one packet of seeds.

[nobby]

I find if you plant them closer together [8-12inches] at the end of aug to sep you can pick leafy spring greens late feb onwords [pick as if thining out starting out with every outher one] by aprial they will be crisp harted cabbages

[Beetroot queen]

Hubby says it was end of July they went in. 

[noshed]

I went to Wisley today and their cabbages have whitefly. I was quite pleased.
I have come home with 3 kilos of lovely apples though - all varieties I have never heard of.

[DD.]

Hubby says it was end of July they went in. 

You don't plant spring cabbage in July, you're giving them enough time to mature before winter.

September/October for me.

[Beetroot queen]

Hubby says it was end of July they went in. 

You don't plant spring cabbage in July, you're giving them enough time to mature before winter.

September/October for me.

But I use the GC as a guide LOL if they have them in as mini plants wrapped in paper surely they need to be planted  they wont last in a piece of paper for long  will they ?

[savbo]

ah such touching faith in the garden centre...
 
M

[crh75]

As has been said, July is very early for Spring cabbages and don't trust garden centres to get it right.
Shame that you wont have any cabbages in spring but at least you will have some now!
Next year wait until at least end of August before planting out spring cabbages.
We live and learn.

[Salmo]

The garden centres are often unhelpful to aspiring veg growers. My local one has purple sprouters, savoy cabbage and hispi cabbage plants on sale now. To my mind the sprouters and savoys are far to late to give a crop and the hispi will be lucky to survive the Winter and will probably bolt in the Spring if they do.

[Beetroot queen]

ah such touching faith in the garden centre...
 
M

You can say it  daft blonde woman  Flipping GC thats no help to the stupid allotment holders like myself 

[crh75]

There's no daft blonde woman about it. Why on earth would you expect not to trust people who are supposed to make a living out of selling plants to you!

[DD.]

There's no daft blonde woman about it. Why on earth would you expect not to trust people who are supposed to make a living out of selling plants to you!

You very quickly find that the "chain" garden centres make money out of selling plants that are unstuitable for the time of year, so that you have to come back & buy more. If you can find an independant one, so much the better.

Check out the monthly guide here:

http://www.allotment-garden.org/garden_month.php

or have a look at the on line seed catalogues, even if you don't buy the seed they are a good guide as to when you should be sowing them and therefore planting out the offspring.

[crh75]

I guess most people only live near one garden centre so there is not too much competition.  Maybe that will start to change with more people using the online suppliers.

I have bought plants from a couple of online suppliers and have been very happy with the service. Also they only dispatch things when you can plant them. 

Just don't forget that you have ordered something in spring to be delivered in autumn and then in autumn reordered it from somewhere else (i have a lot of japanese onion sets right now!)