I think it’s safe to say we’re having an early spring here. The asparagus popped up a full three weeks ahead of when it did last year, and the raspberries and blackberries are leafing out as well. I also monitor soil temperatures, and this morning around 10am it was 52°F at a four inch depth. That tells me it’s time to start planting brassicas like broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi. With rain forecast tonight and tomorrow, I decided to try and get a few things done today while the weather was dry.
cold frame bed ready for kohlrabi
I got one 4ft by 4ft cold frame bed planted with kohlrabi. Yes, that’s a lot of kohlrabi but my wife and I are both big fans. I prepped the bed first by adding compost and a complete organic fertilizer then working it with a fork. This year I’m growing Kolibri, Winner, Kossak and the 2016 AAS winner Konan. Kossak gets quite large and benefits from a wider planting, so I will save it for the main garden. I’m excited to be growing Konan for the first time. It was bred by Bejo Seeds, the same folks who gave us Kolibri and Kossak. I’ll plant some of it and Kolibri in the main garden along with the Kossak, in addition to what I planted in the cold frame bed.
young Kolibri plant
I started all the brassicas this year in 72 cell plug flats. The plants are now four weeks old, and most have two or three true leaves showing. That’s about the stage I like to plant them in spring, though for fall I tend to let them get a bit bigger because birds seem to bother them more then. The larger plants usually aren’t as attractive to the birds as the smaller, more tender ones are. For whatever reason, the birds don’t usually bother them here in spring. Slugs and sowbugs do wreak havoc with them in all seasons, and I spread Sluggo Plus around the plants after planting. You can see in the below photo the roots are nicely formed, but the plants are not rootbound yet.
kohlrabi plant showing roots
I’ll mulch around the plants later with some aged straw to keep down weeds and conserve moisture. I used about a 6 inch by 8 inch spacing this year in the bed, which let me get 35 plants in the 4ft by 4ft bed. I could squeeze them in a little closer, but I tend to let my kohlrabi size up a bit and this spacing seems to work well for me. I leave a little extra room around the outside so the leaves don’t get smashed by the coldframe lid. After planting I watered the plants in with a fish emulsion/seaweed mix to get them off to a good start.
bed after planting
I also worked up the spot in the main garden where I plan on planting brassicas, potatoes and onions. I sent off a soil sample to Logan Labs last week, and as soon as I get the results back I will come up with a plan for amending the soil in that area. Hopefully it will not involve any nutrients I don’t already have on hand, or can’t obtain locally. I need to go get my seed potatoes too and get them cut and ready to plant.
beds for brassicas, potatoes and onions
As long as we don’t get too much rain, with any luck I should be planting onions and the rest of the brassicas on Good Friday!
I hope you don’t have the same wet issues you had last spring. I like the look of that long bed you have for brassicas, onions.
I planted kohlrabi for the first time last year and sowed seed direct to the soil. I don’t have a ton of room in the house and since it worked well enough last year, I’ll do that again. But I like your method (with obviously good results from what I’ve read!) and might try it some other year.
I am hoping it’s not as wet as last year either!
What are using for the “lids” to your cold frames? It looks like row cover with something green for support(?)
The green is mesh bird netting, with Agribon row cover material over it. In summer I remove the row cover material and leave the bird netting to keep out deer and other critters.
Thanks, that might be a really good answer for us here in the Pacific Northwest.
Very envious of your planting kohlrabi already! I’ll be growing Kolibri again and trying out Kossak – as you know that one is supposed to get huge so I’m especially looking forward to that!
I just planted cole crop seedlings this afternoon, including Kolibri and Grand Duke kohlrabi. Sounds like you’ll be making a lot of kohlrabi slaw and kraut. It’s an underappreciated vegetable, and easy to grow.