I have nearly no interest in gardening, but I love watching these videos. I love how in-depth and informative your videos are, and even without any experience in the subject, I still feel as though I understand everything you discuss fairly well. Keep up the great work!
Thanks! That is really useful feedback to receive. I had hoped that my approach would be of interest to experienced growers, beginner gardeners, and even people who have no interest in growing, so it is good to know that for some people it is working.
Although I am on the other side of the world, we share a "Gardening Zone," so it's really interesting to see you dealing with similar temperature/climate issues that we have that are rarely addressed in other gardening channels. I've made my Fiancee watch all of these videos with me because I love the way you handle results. You are very scientific about it, acknowledging other possible factors, explaining other ways you could have done it and why you made the decisions you did. I thoroughly enjoy your channel.
Your soil is gorgeous... luxurious even! //It's a challenge to be methodical and scientific when you can't control variables or be aware of them until the vegetables are growing and you can apprehend their need. Gardening is experiential and experimental and you do both well. Thank you!
Just converted a patch of lawn into 6 11x4ft beds for next year using the lazy beds method from your earlier videos. Going to try grow a few fruits and vegtables next year. Your videos and tony from ukherewegrow are the best on youtube.
This was an exceptional episode. (that's not to say all the previous episodes aren't well worth the watch also) But this particular episode is chock full of quality camera work, concise reviews presenting, beautiful "tasty looking" garden produce and quality garden design layouts. Red Gardens "comparative methods" - method of gardening - adds a unique level of Interest - especially due to the presenters unique ability at explaining concisely & comprehensively; due to his exceptional talent at presenting reviews with a well-spoken relaxed sort of effort via his obviously well practiced 20/20 hindsight ability at accurately reviewing achievements and "rare failures" (considering the high degree of experimental gardening inputs) which ("unashamedly" in the name of research) either did or did not - produce the desired results. But due to the predominantly free-of-charge offering of research results "it's all exceptionally good."
Thanks. I used to have more trouble, or much less consistent results, but something changed in the last few years. Not sure what, but I think a lot of it was just having more interest in growing, and eating them.
This is very helpful. The level of detail is very illuminating. I am happy that there is no music....that seems to me to be a distraction. I like direct simplicity. Blessings.
Nice work! Isn't it crazy how many different crops were created just from a plant that was breed to have different features? My mind was blown when I learned that they are all related even though they are so wildly varied on stems, leaves, buds and flowers. Cabbage and Cauliflower, sure. But when you look at kohlrabi and broccoli, it becomes even more astonishing. On a side note, I definitely noticed improvement. Whatever was causing the smiling between cuts was noticeable and you flowed more naturally in those clips. Also that drone footage was exemplary. Great work!
Great video. Thanks! Subbed. I really enjoy your videos, your perspective, and your manner of relaying info and teaching. Keep up the good work! Brassicas are a wonderful array of plants, but they are hit or miss for me. It is good to see some of my observations confirmed as well as learning some new info. Wish I had some meaningful tips to add, but still learning these. I believe this should help a bit next year. I'm always willing to try things and see what happens, learn, adapt. Have many different methods at work here as well.
In those beds with 4 plants across you could get away with a row of radish/ pak Choi/ beets or other short season veggie in between the main rows. Fills in the area to suppress weeds and can be harvested as the other plants need space.
Thanks very much for the knowledge,if imay ask how long,months does it takes for cauliflower white head to show ,I planted mine on my back yard since May I haven't seen the head,
have you tried integrating the use of Bacillus thuringiensis into cabbage white butterfly control with the Brassicas? I couldn't grow them without its use where i have no netting left.
RED Gardens I tried growing broccoli and Brussel sprouts this spring and they started getting eaten alive with cabbage worms. I got some bt and made sure to spray the underside of the leaves really well. Repeated the next weekend. All gone. All new growth was completely free of holes and I could never find a single worm after that. No netting used but did use shade cloth that was open on the sides. Bt will kill caterpillars/worms but leave all the beneficial insects alone and it’s rated for organic certified farms. It doesn’t kill right away it takes a few days to work but it really does work well.
You are doing so well. I don't know if you're near the coast but seaweed in your compost is supposed to be good, me and my Dad would go down to the shore, especially after a storm, and collect seaweed for his compost. I was only a little girl so I don't really remember how effective it was. I remember we weren't allowed to touch the sprouts until after they had had a frost on them. Good luck, your veg look great.
Thanks. We are about as far away from the coast as you can get in Ireland, but a few years ago I helped a friend with a place on the coast collect tons of seaweed after a storm. It was wonderful stuff!
as a home grower i internally grow broccoli close because I don't need large heads sometimes with large heads get wasted growing them close allows me to plant more in a larger amount in the same space for a longer growing season because they ripen at a different rate
That is a good approach. With my intensive garden, I plan to plant them closer and closer to see how they compare to the other gardens. Do you grow an open pollinated variety or a hybrid?
a interplanted beets 20 betwen my brocolli and cauliflower plants,turns out i had an awesome brocolli and cauliflower,i could not eat all,they were so many,i gave many to all friends and ate all i could,still haave some left,harvested the beets then got 700grams from 19 plants,a total win in my mind,average35g from each beet
When a crop like that is successful, it can be really hard to eat it all!. I make pickles out of my surplus cauliflower, which are a treat all year long!
Most plants I saw in this video had holey leaves. What pest was causing that and does it impact the edibility or saleability of the vegetable? [Edit - I posted a bit too early, I saw you picking off caterpillars at the very end. Still wondering on edibility or saleability - such as are they hitting the head of the cabbage or just the outer leaves...] Thanks for these highly informative videos!
Some of the holes were from caterpillars, but a lot of them were from slugs and tiny snails (which is a new pest for me). they can affect the heads of cauliflower, and get into the cabbages, but generally the damage isn't too bad, and I can just remove the parts that are damaged so that they are more 'saleable'. If I was more of a market gardener, I'd be much more concerned about keeping the pest population down.
Brassicas like cabbage, broccoli and Brussels need a surprisingly large amount of nitrogen compared to other garden vegetables so I’m not surprised the ones in tight spacing or planted near established plants really struggled. I have rather poor soil and have been using a combination of balanced organic fertilizer (slow release) with periodic additions of calcium nitrate (quick release) to help them get enough to do well. I really need to address the issue by adding a bunch of organic material this winter and spring.
They do seem to be aggressive feeders. I do occasionally liquid feed the more struggling plants but I am thinking of trying supplemental feeding on a regular basis next year.
Older books I've read recommended leaf mold for growing brassicas. It's a long term project I guess. Try it for potting soil maybe. Organic matter might not be as essential for brassicas as it might be for other crops, not 100% on this but it's possible brassicas need the end product of the OM being reduced, the humic acid. This might make nutrients already there more available, which might be important if the type of fungi that help the brassica family is lacking.
here in melbourne i dont bother with brassicas in warm season, way too many caterpillars. grow them successfully over the cold season for harvest early spring, when we get a crazy mix of cool and warm temps. today is 3rd day of spring, 30C..tomorrow 16C.
RED Gardens : yes, very hard or impossible to grow the likes of cauliflower without bolting. particularly where i am, not too far from coast, we get extreme heat and cool weather variability on day to day basis, triggering bolting. without a temperature controlled environment, i wouldnt bother with anything but cabbage in our summer.
Great vid! At 8.55 you said the braasicas had unexpected competition.. perhaps plants of the same type would be expected to compete more because of their shared root zones / depth etc...?? Although this seems to be moot after the polyculture garden examples... :-(
I think you are spot on with your point about the shared root zone. I am thinking that when I start mixing these larger brassicas in with significantly different types of vegetable plants, that there will be less competition - well that is the idea of approach, but I have been hesitant to really give it a try as I was tightly adhering to the crop rotation thing.
I’ve heard that to avoid heavy pest infestation, I should not plant large amounts of the same family of vegetables in the same space, but rather to disperse all plants throughout the entire garden.
I have heard the same, though usually in the context of big fields. I am not sure how effective it is as an approach in the small garden, but it is one of the possible benefits of a polyculture approach.
RED Gardens I agree. I have about a half acre garden. I try to mix it up a bit. It’s not terribly practical as far as upkeep and harvesting, but I’m not using chemical pest control, so I’m giving those bad boys less to zero in on.
@@REDGardens no way. I have a bee-keeper friend that would actually kill for a queen-bee of that hive. Im a black bee beekeeper too from germany. Can you pls ask him if he or the source he got it from sell queen bees in the upcoming season? or old hives etc...
Did I catch a glimpse of soil blocks when you were planting out the young plants? I'm going to try a soil blocker tool next spring. Great video. It all looks so healthy!
cut the leaves off your brussel sprouts as they grow..it will make them grow taller and produce more buds and also will let your other plants get more sun.
I hadn't heard that removing the leaves woful make the plants grow taller. I wonder if that is because the plants don't have to spend energy and nutrients maintaining the older leaves?
Your entire series is a meaningful contribution to the practical knowledge of growing crops. I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.
Thanks so much for that feedback.
I agree, they are SO useful!
those cabbages are BEAUTIFUL
Yeah! And they were tasty!
I have nearly no interest in gardening, but I love watching these videos. I love how in-depth and informative your videos are, and even without any experience in the subject, I still feel as though I understand everything you discuss fairly well. Keep up the great work!
Agree there! Also, liking your comment because of your username!
Thanks! That is really useful feedback to receive. I had hoped that my approach would be of interest to experienced growers, beginner gardeners, and even people who have no interest in growing, so it is good to know that for some people it is working.
Although I am on the other side of the world, we share a "Gardening Zone," so it's really interesting to see you dealing with similar temperature/climate issues that we have that are rarely addressed in other gardening channels. I've made my Fiancee watch all of these videos with me because I love the way you handle results. You are very scientific about it, acknowledging other possible factors, explaining other ways you could have done it and why you made the decisions you did. I thoroughly enjoy your channel.
That is interesting, and thanks for the feedback. Glad you like my approach!
Your soil is gorgeous... luxurious even! //It's a challenge to be methodical and scientific when you can't control variables or be aware of them until the vegetables are growing and you can apprehend their need. Gardening is experiential and experimental and you do both well. Thank you!
Thanks. It is great soil to work with, and I have slowly built up the fertility to the point that growing great crops is so much easier.
Just converted a patch of lawn into 6 11x4ft beds for next year using the lazy beds method from your earlier videos. Going to try grow a few fruits and vegtables next year. Your videos and tony from ukherewegrow are the best on youtube.
Thanks. Glad to hear that you have found my videos useful. Good luck with your new garden!
This was an exceptional episode.
(that's not to say all the previous episodes aren't well worth the watch also)
But this particular episode is chock full of quality camera work, concise reviews presenting, beautiful "tasty looking" garden produce and quality garden design layouts.
Red Gardens "comparative methods" - method of gardening - adds a unique level of Interest - especially due to the presenters unique ability at explaining concisely & comprehensively; due to his exceptional talent at presenting reviews with a well-spoken relaxed sort of effort via his obviously well practiced 20/20 hindsight ability at accurately reviewing achievements and "rare failures" (considering the high degree of experimental gardening inputs) which ("unashamedly" in the name of research) either did or did not - produce the desired results.
But due to the predominantly free-of-charge offering of research results "it's all exceptionally good."
Thanks for that review! Very useful to get that kind of feedback!.
My favourite but most challenging to grow - the brassicas!! Really top video - loved it..
Thanks. I used to have more trouble, or much less consistent results, but something changed in the last few years. Not sure what, but I think a lot of it was just having more interest in growing, and eating them.
This is very helpful. The level of detail is very illuminating. I am happy that there is no music....that seems to me to be a distraction. I like direct simplicity. Blessings.
Thanks for that feedback. I am glad you appreciate the lack of music.
Nice work! Isn't it crazy how many different crops were created just from a plant that was breed to have different features? My mind was blown when I learned that they are all related even though they are so wildly varied on stems, leaves, buds and flowers. Cabbage and Cauliflower, sure. But when you look at kohlrabi and broccoli, it becomes even more astonishing.
On a side note, I definitely noticed improvement. Whatever was causing the smiling between cuts was noticeable and you flowed more naturally in those clips. Also that drone footage was exemplary. Great work!
Yeah, it is crazy. Such diversity!
Thanks for the side note - good to know.
you are a great New Zealander
Haha
Great video. Thanks! Subbed. I really enjoy your videos, your perspective, and your manner of relaying info and teaching. Keep up the good work! Brassicas are a wonderful array of plants, but they are hit or miss for me. It is good to see some of my observations confirmed as well as learning some new info. Wish I had some meaningful tips to add, but still learning these. I believe this should help a bit next year. I'm always willing to try things and see what happens, learn, adapt. Have many different methods at work here as well.
In those beds with 4 plants across you could get away with a row of radish/ pak Choi/ beets or other short season veggie in between the main rows. Fills in the area to suppress weeds and can be harvested as the other plants need space.
So far I have avoided intercropping like that, but something to consider.
Thanks very much for the knowledge,if imay ask how long,months does it takes for cauliflower white head to show ,I planted mine on my back yard since May I haven't seen the head,
have you tried integrating the use of Bacillus thuringiensis into cabbage white butterfly control with the Brassicas? I couldn't grow them without its use where i have no netting left.
Amazing! I am going to stealerise that idea if you don't mind :-)
I haven't tried it. Interesting to hear that you have found it effective.
RED Gardens I tried growing broccoli and Brussel sprouts this spring and they started getting eaten alive with cabbage worms. I got some bt and made sure to spray the underside of the leaves really well. Repeated the next weekend. All gone. All new growth was completely free of holes and I could never find a single worm after that. No netting used but did use shade cloth that was open on the sides. Bt will kill caterpillars/worms but leave all the beneficial insects alone and it’s rated for organic certified farms. It doesn’t kill right away it takes a few days to work but it really does work well.
@@Hazel_Dazel I'll have to give it a try.
as always great content...
:)
You are doing so well. I don't know if you're near the coast but seaweed in your compost is supposed to be good, me and my Dad would go down to the shore, especially after a storm, and collect seaweed for his compost. I was only a little girl so I don't really remember how effective it was. I remember we weren't allowed to touch the sprouts until after they had had a frost on them. Good luck, your veg look great.
Thanks. We are about as far away from the coast as you can get in Ireland, but a few years ago I helped a friend with a place on the coast collect tons of seaweed after a storm. It was wonderful stuff!
RED Gardens I'll send you some over from Morecambe bay.
as a home grower i internally grow broccoli close because I don't need large heads sometimes with large heads get wasted growing them close allows me to plant more in a larger amount in the same space for a longer growing season because they ripen at a different rate
That is a good approach. With my intensive garden, I plan to plant them closer and closer to see how they compare to the other gardens. Do you grow an open pollinated variety or a hybrid?
@@REDGardens i have used both
Liked and commented for algorithm.
:)
a interplanted beets 20 betwen my brocolli and cauliflower plants,turns out i had an awesome brocolli and cauliflower,i could not eat all,they were so many,i gave many to all friends and ate all i could,still haave some left,harvested the beets then got 700grams from 19 plants,a total win in my mind,average35g from each beet
When a crop like that is successful, it can be really hard to eat it all!. I make pickles out of my surplus cauliflower, which are a treat all year long!
Most plants I saw in this video had holey leaves. What pest was causing that and does it impact the edibility or saleability of the vegetable?
[Edit - I posted a bit too early, I saw you picking off caterpillars at the very end. Still wondering on edibility or saleability - such as are they hitting the head of the cabbage or just the outer leaves...]
Thanks for these highly informative videos!
Some of the holes were from caterpillars, but a lot of them were from slugs and tiny snails (which is a new pest for me). they can affect the heads of cauliflower, and get into the cabbages, but generally the damage isn't too bad, and I can just remove the parts that are damaged so that they are more 'saleable'. If I was more of a market gardener, I'd be much more concerned about keeping the pest population down.
Brassicas like cabbage, broccoli and Brussels need a surprisingly large amount of nitrogen compared to other garden vegetables so I’m not surprised the ones in tight spacing or planted near established plants really struggled. I have rather poor soil and have been using a combination of balanced organic fertilizer (slow release) with periodic additions of calcium nitrate (quick release) to help them get enough to do well. I really need to address the issue by adding a bunch of organic material this winter and spring.
They do seem to be aggressive feeders. I do occasionally liquid feed the more struggling plants but I am thinking of trying supplemental feeding on a regular basis next year.
Older books I've read recommended leaf mold for growing brassicas. It's a long term project I guess. Try it for potting soil maybe. Organic matter might not be as essential for brassicas as it might be for other crops, not 100% on this but it's possible brassicas need the end product of the OM being reduced, the humic acid. This might make nutrients already there more available, which might be important if the type of fungi that help the brassica family is lacking.
Thanks for sharing
:)
Thanks
here in melbourne i dont bother with brassicas in warm season, way too many caterpillars. grow them successfully over the cold season for harvest early spring, when we get a crazy mix of cool and warm temps. today is 3rd day of spring, 30C..tomorrow 16C.
Sounds like your winter is similar to our summer. Do you find that the brassicas bolt or go to seed as the weather warms up?
RED Gardens : yes, very hard or impossible to grow the likes of cauliflower without bolting. particularly where i am, not too far from coast, we get extreme heat and cool weather variability on day to day basis, triggering bolting. without a temperature controlled environment, i wouldnt bother with anything but cabbage in our summer.
Great vid! At 8.55 you said the braasicas had unexpected competition.. perhaps plants of the same type would be expected to compete more because of their shared root zones / depth etc...?? Although this seems to be moot after the polyculture garden examples... :-(
I think you are spot on with your point about the shared root zone. I am thinking that when I start mixing these larger brassicas in with significantly different types of vegetable plants, that there will be less competition - well that is the idea of approach, but I have been hesitant to really give it a try as I was tightly adhering to the crop rotation thing.
I know you are watching the progress of the storm & hope it'll move more west to not hit yall directly. Batten down the hatches, just in case.
I have just been looking at that storm. It we won't be hit directly, but I am thinking of how I can protect these crops. Time to set up a wind break.
I’ve heard that to avoid heavy pest infestation, I should not plant large amounts of the same family of vegetables in the same space, but rather to disperse all plants throughout the entire garden.
I have heard the same, though usually in the context of big fields. I am not sure how effective it is as an approach in the small garden, but it is one of the possible benefits of a polyculture approach.
RED Gardens I agree. I have about a half acre garden. I try to mix it up a bit. It’s not terribly practical as far as upkeep and harvesting, but I’m not using chemical pest control, so I’m giving those bad boys less to zero in on.
hi bit of a random question. But do you know by any chance an irish beekeeper who has a true irish native bee?
I think the hives beside my gardens are native black bees.
@@REDGardens no way. I have a bee-keeper friend that would actually kill for a queen-bee of that hive. Im a black bee beekeeper too from germany. Can you pls ask him if he or the source he got it from sell queen bees in the upcoming season? or old hives etc...
I'll ask
Did I catch a glimpse of soil blocks when you were planting out the young plants? I'm going to try a soil blocker tool next spring. Great video. It all looks so healthy!
Yes, well spotted. I use mostly soil blocks for brassicas. I made a video about it ua-cam.com/video/xLbAkqau_MI/v-deo.html
What is diff between poly cultures does intensive
What growing zone are you in?
I don't know, as we don't use the zone system over here in Ireland.
cut the leaves off your brussel sprouts as they grow..it will make them grow taller and produce more buds and also will let your other plants get more sun.
I hadn't heard that removing the leaves woful make the plants grow taller. I wonder if that is because the plants don't have to spend energy and nutrients maintaining the older leaves?
yezz
Could you please grow your beard out really long? Think of it as a face crop.
haha
Man, you again? You are weird dude
4:50 there’s something about that plant that makes me cringe, I think it’s all the wrinkly leaves. But otherwise, another great video!
Sounds like you might have trypophobia. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia)
They are a bit 'warty'!
RED Gardens indeed
I think you are not using all of your space, because your are not planting shifted between the rows
I could always increase density some more.