Have you ruled out the 'damping off' that seems to be a major seedling killer? (I've not had it myself, but description on the forum sound similar, and by moving them outside your starts might be more exposed to spores and such.)

Naturegirl, my tomatoes are alive, but barely. The rest of them look like they are being eaten by any number of things. I got maybe 5 good ones, the rest of the ones that *would* have been good I think were eaten by the squirrels. The ones that are next to ripen have holes. :( Bummer. I only planted the yellow, low acid ones, and my husband was sort of responsible for the veggie garden this year - and since he doesn't eat tomatoes and doesn't think I should either (he's into the blood type diet and we're "type A" - meaning avoid tomatoes), they were a bit neglected and never properly staked, so a lot ended up drooping to the ground. I was lazy and didn't take care of it myself, I'm not really a true gardener, obviously, but next year I think I will try the little yellow cherry tomatoes, the pear shaped ones. Maybe they will ripen quicker and I can get them before the bugs and squirrels do. I really had no idea the Brussels sprouts were such a late fall crop, so hopefully we'll get something from those. None of the other cruciferous things did particularly well, though we did finally get some decent kale. The plants never got very big, but the bugs didn't bother those. The broccoli on the other hand got huge, but very full of holes and produced such tiny florets. Not worth the amount of space they took up.

TracyDR: That makes sense. My available horse manure does break down quickly, and in MA we have chopped leaves! I JUST happen to have bed very much like your description. I was planning onions, but perhaps I will put a few Brussels at one end, to test my soil! Mark: I am rolling in cabbage immediately next to the Brussels, and they are just starting to head up nicely. Which is good, cause we just started eating second planting of Caraflex from another bed. I parked them there, on a lasagna compost system, sans carpet, from last year. I didn't expect much, soil was very young, but they are great. Our summer was cooler than usual, nights in low 60's, and hi 50's. Most days 70-80, with a week or so higher in August. Basically perfect broccoli weather. A local vegetable gardening friend told me to look at calcium in the soil. Does low calcium affect Brussels, but not cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower? My memory says it is a trace nutrient... Off to check. KateQ

These were not just a few aphids! They were covering the plants and down into the leaves of the buds! Yuk! I sprayed before pulling because there were so many and I didn't want to shake them (live) all over the rest of the garden! I think they've already hit my new broccoli. I've never HAD aphids in the 6-7 years I've been vege gardening. What I have now is chard, some snow peas, some late green beans, I'm just pulling up the tomatoes, some broccoli and I have lettuce and beets ready to plant. Do aphids bother any of these, or should I shut down the garden for the winter?