
Planting a Greenhouse Bed Full of Brassicas
Part 1
(Transcript from video)
Courtney Brooke: Here we are in the greenhouse at Full Circle Farm. It’s raining and it’s cold; it’s early spring and here we are planting this brassica bed. Me and Jonathan.
Hey Jonathan!
We’re putting in cabbages and cauliflower and lettuce and broccoli. Jonathan, are you willing to tell us what the plan is here?
Jonathan: Well, this is precious space here that’s protected, and so the soil is a lot warmer. We’ve dug out the turmeric in the middle here and it’s a perfect time to plant these brassicas. They are not quite as hardy as kale so could have done it a little bit earlier but they’re just gonna hit the ground running because the soils all ready and warmed up for them. If you planted them outside they’d probably survive but they go a lot slower. They may get hit by a hard freeze and it stunt their growth.
Courtney Brooke: So we’re going to plant like 120 brassica plants in this space right?
Jonathan: Yeah, actually it might be a little less but, yeah. You can see already the ones that were planted …the kind of spacing… these are squeezed in a little bit more than maybe it’s optimal for a maximum size. But I have extra plants and so you might get smaller individual yields but hopefully the total yield will be great. They’re spaced 18 inches apart but the rows are a little tighter. I’m squeezing in seven, six, or five rows. They would grow a lot bigger…
Courtney Brooke: So the idea is that first the lettuce will come out …and then the cabbage and cauliflower will come out …and then the broccoli will be the last one standing.
Jonathan: Yes.
Part 2
Courtney Brooke: So here we are after it’s planted out. That was just bare soil this morning. We turned it with the forks and then got all these plants in the ground. May they grow.
Brassicas, Full Circle Farm, Greenhouse, jonathan
