it must be the raised beds, because we have had a couple of 10 inches over the years, and the greens loved it, including the collards.

glib, a raised bed would likely have helped. But the wilt only impacts the brassicas. All other vegetables seemed to survive the deluge. Brassicas can't handle excess moisture. This has happened before. I recall a similar result several years ago associated with rainfall from a tropical storm.

The weather folks are forecasting another 2 to 4 inches this weekend. Not sure how much of my 178 plants will survive with currently saturated soil much less after adding another 2 to 4 inches.

do you think it is a disease or just basic drowning?

No diseasees. No standing water. Its just that the soil is (or was) saturated for too long. The rain was continuous for over 24 hours this last weekend.

Based on the past similar experiences, some plants will recover & some won't...not sure of the percentages.

Just got a phone call from a gardening friend to whom I provided broccoli plants. He plants in a raised bed. His plants are just as bad off as mine.

10 1/4 inches in a weekend??! I'm not surprised they wilted. You must have great drainage or sand for soil.

• no, I like LoneJack have had events where there were inches of standing water in the paths, and no damage to the plants. It has to do with having the soil saturated all the way to the top for long enough I think.

It has to do with having the soil saturated all the way to the top for long enough I think.... Concur. Although the drainage was good, the continuous rainfall for over 24 hrs was too much for the plant's root system to tolerate both in my row garden and in my friend's raised bed garden. As mentioned above this is not a first time experience for me.

When this happened in the past did the roots rot on the Brassicas that did not survive? Did the existing leaves eventually yellow and fall off or did they recover? Do you know if other gardeners in your area had the same issues with their Brassicas? I think with the El Nino predictions for California you might be in for a rough go this winter. Good luck!

I think Granddad is in Louisiana. No predictions for El Nino affecting the Gulf.

What happened before is either 1) the plant wilted during the middle of the day, stayed wilted overnight, leaves yellowed (but did not fall off) and reached a point where it was clearly not going to recover, or 2) plant wilted during the middle of the day but recovered over night and eventually survived.

My rows started off at about 8 inches but diminished to about 3 to 4 inches with the continuous rain. Gardening friends who had high rows that were over a foot high had little or no damage. I was surprised that my raised bed gardening friend had problems.

Smaller plants are looking like they will have better survival rate. My first planted plants set out in the third week of September are the ones that look like they won't make it. In total, about 2/3 of the plants are showing signs of recovery overnight. So hopefully I can keep to this survival rate (or better). However, weather forecasters are predicting another 2 to 4 inches of rain again this upcoming weekend... There was enough concern for them to move Trick or Treat from Saturday night to Friday night. So we will see..

I have lots of replacement plants (150 or so left) for those that don't make it. I usually grow several hundred plants and wind up planting a over 200, and giving away the same amount or so to friends and relatives. The main issue is timing; the replacements will take longer to produce, have to survive winter, and if they do will yield smaller heads.

The weather forecasters are calling for the El Nino to bring a wetter than normal winter in our region. ... but not to the abnormal degree that they are expecting California to get.

My bad...I thought the Sunset rating was a California thing.

I'm glad that you are seeing some pretty good recovery Grandad. That's a lot of Brassicas!! Hopefully the weekend weather won't cause any more harm. The front looks like it is dropping quite a bit of rain in Texas right now.

We got our first frost in KC this morning so I guess I did the right thing in pulling all of my green peppers last night. Brought about 15 lbs. to work this morning to give away and have another 10 lbs. at home to hopefully ripen up a bit. I will chop and freeze most of them. It is a shame we got the frost because the 14 day forecast doesn't show any more lows below 39 for my area. Normally our first frost is about Oct 17 so we have been on borrowed time for a couple weeks.

My measly 4 Brussels Sprout plants have some dime size sprouts now at the bottom. I think I may go ahead a top them this weekend so they put more energy into the sprouts. Hoping to get a good harvest for Thanksgiving dinner. My broccoli are still putting out side shoots but they are getting rather small now and bolting quickly. I will probably pull the first Broccoli planting this weekend as I need a nitrogen source for my compost to mix with the huge amount of leaves I have right now.

I have raised beds, but some of my lettuce took a hit from all that rain. Waiting until next week to resow.

@glib El Nino is supposed to keep the gulf coast and all of Florida cooler and wetter through the Spring. Next year is supposed to be the opposite.

Update: better, at least for now. About 25% of my brassicas look like they may not make it. Brussels sprouts in the foreground are doubtful for recovery, along with first planted broccoli & caulifower in the background.

The forecasted heavy rain is just now starting. ...time will tell.

I would cut back those yellowing brussel sprout leaves now before it turns to mush during more rain. That's just going to invite slugs/bugs/etc and may even topple some over if enough rain. Everything else looks fine. I see collards/mustard greens and that will laugh off the rain and keep growing. If you have kohlrabi, those may split or rot out.

Another 4.1 inches of rain collected in our rain gauge Saturday & Sunday.

The weatherman reported that the Baton Rouge October rainfall record has been broken....at 15.13 inches with the first rainfall occurring on Oct 24th.

AJ, No greens, those are radishes. Also, no kohlrabi planted rhis year. I plan to take out the Brussels sprouts and replant with broccoli & cauliflower.

This was last year but I wanted to ask you guys if you were using slow release fertiliser or any other kind of fertilisers at the time? Plants move water into their roots from a low salt concentrate to a high one. When it rains excessively and you have primarily chemical fertiliser in the ground it basically dissolves at a higher rate than its designed to, causing a drought for the plant as no water can be absorbed into the roots. A waxy layer prevents hydration through the leaves. They collapse and almost instantly if the sun comes out. Strange as it seems during heavy rain this is a possibility to consider. Though cabbages or brassicas don't much like warm humidity and rain and wet feet at all. I can't even grow them, only in winter then I'm watering like hell, so I stick to the ornamental varieties in pots close by.