Tuesday 11 May 2010

brassica progress

http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden10/bigleaf.JPGWhat do you reckon, is my broccoletti a bit oversized?  My broccoli last year never got leaves this big!  And they're a bit brittle, two leaves have already snapped off.  It also got attacked by aphids a few weeks back and even though I killed them off quickly, it sure warped that set of leaves badly (not pictured, they're only half the size of this monster and misshapen).  In any case, I wonder if I went a bit too heavy on the fertilizer pellets, though the kale is normal sized.

http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden10/gailan.JPGThe gai lan is already at harvest size, at least I think so, because it's forming little heads.  I'm not sure what to expect really.  But I thought there would be many more leaves per stem, there are only about 6 big leaves per stem.  And unfortunately they're not really edible.  The caterpillars I can deal with - little holes don't bother me.  But the citrus leave miners I cannot tolerate.  They're all over the cumquats which doesn't really matter.  But they also attacked my lettuce last year and they're all over the kale and gai lan.  They're awful because they burrow into the leaf and the only way to get rid of them is to rip off the part of the leaf they're in.

So the gai lan is a bit of a failure, but at least it was a quick failure!  I have some seeds for "red arrow broccoli" I might try instead, it's meant to be purple/red but turn green when you cook it.  Sounds like fun!



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