brassica troubles

[hiyatim]

before this horrible wet spell we had my caulis were looking great, about the size of a fist so ifigured they had a bit of growing to do yet, now it seems they are all ruining. the tops have gone dark and there is even green and orange mould in places. What did i do wrong?? they were all pretty well covered by their own leaves, the only thing i can think is the net i have is so very fine its stopped the wind getting through so theirs not enough air circulation??

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also my cabbages have gone wrong, i harvested one a while back and the tips of the leaves right the way to the centre was like it had scortch, but i dont see how it can scortch so deep, anyway, not look at the next pic, same effect but even worse now, did i just leave it too long?

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i dont know if i overreacted but i simply pulled all the above out and now will cut off the bad bits and freeze the rest. all my prized veggies ruined

on another note can i put the roots into my compost bin or do i need to get rid of all brassica roots??

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Tim, you haven't done anything wrong! As I said before cauliflowers are really difficult to grow and I have seen alot of allotmenteers taking home tiny cauliflowers that are fist sized. Plus they have been dead chuffed that they actually managed to grow cauliflower!! Quite simply you left the cauliflowers far too long and you really should harvest them when they look good enough to eat. Rain is a right pain! The photo of your cabbage isn't very clear - has the head split open? This is caused by the rain and there is nothing we can do about the blasted rain! But from your description does the cabbage have brown edges to the leaves inside the cabbage head? If so then this sounds like tipburn.

[hiyatim]

hi lesley, i have one more cauli slightly smaller than a tennis ball, im gunna harvest it tomoz so i can really enjoy it.

the cabbage hasnt split no, but the tip of every single leave all the way to the centre is brown, tip burn describes it perfectly, how is this caused??

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Tim, tipburn is usually a sign of water shortage (I can hear you shouting - No Way!). You've put all the good cabbage into the freezer so you haven't lost the crop and you've still got a cauliflower plus the leaves to enjoy! All the roots from your brassicas can go into the compost - it's just when a plant is diseased that you don't compost it.