Lots of question

Hi, My growing is doing well, but I have numerous questions for you all.

Today I bought some lovely looking salad leaf plugs.  Little gems and oakleaf.  I've planted the larger plugs and left the smaller where they are in the green house.  I've planted them into a wall mounted trough so chicken and slug protected, but will the wild birds eat them?  I have some strawberry netting I could cover them with.  Also do I need to harden them off so should bring them into the green house tonight?

Radish  I sowed a trough a couple of weeks ago and the seedlings are a couple of inches and doing really well.  Is it worth transplanting or just thin and give the seedlings that don't make the grade to the chooks?

Brussels - I bought some plugs of these today, I've got to harden them off over the next few days and I'm just preparing where they will live, but as a rough guide, what on earth do I do with them, how far apart etc? Never grown them or anythign similar before.

Toms - I have a number of plants, some seedlings from a friend who are growing on slowly but nicely, stil only a few inches.  A cherry tom plant that has a few flowers opening on now and I've not done anything with this since I bought from the centre a month or 2 ago and then yesterday I inherited the neighbours 2 huge plants, again starting to flower, big bushy things, look really healthy, put all mine to shame.  I've grown tome int he plast but not properly and left them to their own devices.  What I want to is to grown them properly this year, so what's all this pinching out, setting, etc etc I read about I have no clue.  I can take pics of the plants if that would help?

Cues - never had a greenhouse before, so this is all new.  I have 3 plants, looking healthy enough.  I've them in growbags currently, but been realing about them, so I'm thinking I have some small builders trugs, I think I'm going to put holes in the bottom of them, get an oblesik thing and train them up that - would that work?  Then what, do I need to do anything to them or leave them to get on with it?

Melon - my hubby turned up with one of them for me yesterday!  I need to repot - into what?  I have an empty compost bag I could use? Perhaps sit it in a tray and water from the bottom?  Do I need a trellis or something for it?  I have spare pea netting and spare weldmesh I could rig up?

Sweetcorn - ready to go out yet, or should I repot into larger pots first?  Again hubby brought home yesterday so about 10 stalks in a tiny tub but all healthy looking.

Would you believe this isn't all I'm growing and the other things I know what I'm doing.  Really going for it this year!

Any help much appriciated!

Brussels need more space than that Matt. They need as many inches as you've given them cms!

http://www.allotment-garden.org/grow-your-own/vegetables/brussels-sprouts

Wow, thanks for all that.  I have the cues in seperate grow bags currently and so I need to replat them in order to be able to support them - I think, I'll have another look tomorrow, I just was reading last night people having them in 12" pots so I assumed they needed more root space than a grow bag would allow.

So, about this 30", I don't have that space for all the plugs.  It was just a single tray, but with 12 plants for £1.25, now who could resist!  So would you plant less and stick to the 30" or plant them all with less room?  I'm preparing my border now, bit I've got a pumpkin, my sweetcorn and my brussles to go in.  I could plant them closer and give them more room once the sweetcorn are done?  Didn't seem like a good idea though from what the link said about the roots needing to be damage free.  Anywhere else will either be damaged from my extension that's getting built soon or wind.

Sweetcorn.  I did know about the block planting as I've successfully grown it up here before, but then I just had 6 plants, so 2 lines of 3.  I think this time I'm going to do a sq of 9 and see how that goes.

Raddish - so you don't thin, what happens then? Do some just win out? - maybe you didn't have a 1 & 2 yr old helping(!) you plant the seeds?  Don't even get me started on the state of my carrots.  Not even in a straight line.

Cordons varieties? huh?

I have the tickets frm the one I bought and the 2 that I inherited last night, I'll go and have a look when it stops raining.  My friend is back from hols the end of this week so I'll ask her then

Going back to the sprouts rcf:

fewer plants properly spaced will give  abetter crop that more plants squashed together

They usually need staking as they get bigger, and the ground they ae in needs to be well firmed. if they rock about, the sprouts are not firm and solid.

Hope that helps a bit

Plant swaps are great --- you never know what you might get 

Oh well I may try transplanting them, they seem sturdy enough and there are enough for about 3 times what I can grow in the tub.  I was going to sow another tub this weekend coming for a continual supply, so a tub of slower transplants may bridge the gap nicely.