Broccoli and kale planting advice please

Stephanie newish gardener

Hi,
I have some broccoli and cavolo Nero seedlings at various stages of development and I could do with some advice on what to do next.
The space I had earmarked for planting them has been infested with a perennial rooty weed that must have inadvertently got into the compost heap and I've now put it on the garden. I have some space elsewhere for some of the plants but they are not all ready to go in the ground yet.
I think the three biggest ones in individual pots are ready to go in the ground - am I right please?
The rest of them now need to be logged on into pots about the size of those holding the biggest ones - am I right on that too please?
I work full time and the garden takes up all my spare time so I'm not sure how long it will take to clear the patch I had hoped to use. I'm thinking either laborious hand wedding or maybe lifting out the compost - it's a raised bed - and just chucking some topsoil in instead.  Any thoughts please?
Thanks
Sadly in trying to attach pics I get a message that says chrome has stopped, so I will post this then try to post pics separately

Stephanie newish gardener

So now I'm really frustrated because I can't post the photos. There's nothing wrong with chrome at all as it works on all other sites, so maybe there's a problem with uploading to the forum, though others have managed
Anyway, the bigger seedlings are 10" tall with decent leaves and the rest are between 5" and 8" but their stems are not as thick as the bigger ones   
Hope that helps 

Skandi

Ok well at work we plant our brassicas out into the field at around 4-5 inches high, so I would say that any of yours are ready to go (on height alone of course)  I would use either landscape fabric or newspaper on top of your soil (mulch on top of the newspaper) and plant through that, that should keep the worst of the weeds down, and get your plants in the ground fast. you can pull the leaves off any weeds that make it through.

Nanny Beach

later on in the year, you will need to cover them with fine netting otherwise, theblooming cabbage white will have the lot!

Stephanie newish gardener

Nanny Beach said:

later on in the year, you will need to cover them with fine netting otherwise, theblooming cabbage white will have the lot!

The space I was going to use is right next to an existing mesh tunnel which I was going to extend, but I'm really not sure about planting the veg into a bunch of aggressive weed roots! 
I think the word is bum!!!

nin

Sounds like it could be bind weed if it is it is white fairly thick and you can if soil is soft. Enough wheel it in like rope. Just follow it along . Get out what you can and cardboard then new top soil on top and pray and kill of any that sneaks through. Its a nightmare weed. Just one centimetre left and its back next year it also goes deeper than other weeds. Its one where cardboard and membrane dont seem to work. I hope I am wrong and its nettle or dock or something else.

Igrowfromseed

nin said:

Sounds like it could be bind weed if it is it is white fairly thick and you can if soil is soft. Enough wheel it in like rope. Just follow it along . Get out what you can and cardboard then new top soil on top and pray and kill of any that sneaks through. Its a nightmare weed. Just one centimetre left and its back next year it also goes deeper than other weeds. Its one where cardboard and membrane dont seem to work. I hope I am wrong and its nettle or dock or something else.

Bindweed is one of the few weeds that I would always use glyphosate on rather than trying to dig it up. It responds within a day to the glycphosate and that plant doesn't return. I dig up all my other perennial weeds, inclusind nettles.

Igrowfromseed

Skandi said:

Ok well at work we plant our brassicas out into the field at around 4-5 inches high, so I would say that any of yours are ready to go (on height alone of course)  I would use either landscape fabric or newspaper on top of your soil (mulch on top of the newspaper) and plant through that, that should keep the worst of the weeds down, and get your plants in the ground fast. you can pull the leaves off any weeds that make it through.

You just reminded me of a great way to get my clumps of corriander seed into the ground and keep those pesky weeks at bay. I was going to blow torch the soil first to kill off any weed seed but I think I'll try the newspaper and mulch.
Thanks

Stephanie newish gardener

I have photos of the roots but my tablet is refusing to upload them after a chrome update. I will sort this out later and post them this evening. Some of the roots are brown like tree roots but they are actively growing so i'm really not sure what it is. Doesn't help that so far there is nothing on the surface to identify the plant because i've had black plastic on the soil to warm it up for the broccoli 

raisingirl

I would get out as much as you can especially in the planting holes and deal with the rest by hoeing around your brassicas - they have tall clean stems so are fairly easy to weed around and they are only annuals, so the total extermination of the weed phase can wait til the brassicas come out again in the autumn. In the meantime keeping it down will have at least weakened it for this year. Your crop may be diminished by the competition, but cavolo nero is quite tough so I expect it'll cope. 

Is your brocolli purple sprouting or calabrese?

Stephanie newish gardener

Well the seed packet calls it broccoli stromboli (I think - not got it in front of me) but it's a single headed calabrese really