My allotment neighbours are hanging over the fence laughing at them.
I thought it might be the dreaded club root but I`ve got thriving cabbages and broccoli on either side of them.
What do you think?
Rubbish Sprouts.
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Elderflower
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My Brussels Sprouts are pathetic! Only about a foot high, sprouts as big as peas or already blown, just useless!
My allotment neighbours are hanging over the fence laughing at them.
I thought it might be the dreaded club root but I`ve got thriving cabbages and broccoli on either side of them.
What do you think?
My allotment neighbours are hanging over the fence laughing at them.
I thought it might be the dreaded club root but I`ve got thriving cabbages and broccoli on either side of them.
What do you think?
Hi Elderflower,
May I enquire which variety of sprout you have grown?
I appreciate that this is of no consolation to you but my sprouts this year are very early and quite large with even the very bottom sprouts edible size.
These are Bedford Darkmar 21 and I have grown this same variety for years. Although not an F1 variety and have a tendency to be a little irregular in size
they have a super flavour. If anything I realise that the early picking could be me planting out earlier than normal.
Sprouts are a plant that should never be starved of water in their junior stages prior to planting out.
This year the weather was back to front so we got the warmth when we normally have the rain and I feel that may well be when your sprouts suffered and then failed to materialise properly.
JB.
May I enquire which variety of sprout you have grown?
I appreciate that this is of no consolation to you but my sprouts this year are very early and quite large with even the very bottom sprouts edible size.
These are Bedford Darkmar 21 and I have grown this same variety for years. Although not an F1 variety and have a tendency to be a little irregular in size
they have a super flavour. If anything I realise that the early picking could be me planting out earlier than normal.
Sprouts are a plant that should never be starved of water in their junior stages prior to planting out.
This year the weather was back to front so we got the warmth when we normally have the rain and I feel that may well be when your sprouts suffered and then failed to materialise properly.
JB.
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Elderflower
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Evening JB,
I can`t remember what variety they are - only that they`re meant to be early. I shall blame the weather then.
And I really am pleased that yours are doing well.
Honest.
I can`t remember what variety they are - only that they`re meant to be early. I shall blame the weather then.
And I really am pleased that yours are doing well.
Honest.
Elderflower hi, I have grown two varieties this year, planted along side each other after sowing and potting on together. Seven Hills are tight and perfectly formed whereas the other ( I think they are Topline) are like loofah sponges!
My soil by the way is not compacted, just hand pressed when planted into position. Seven Hills have always been great.
My soil by the way is not compacted, just hand pressed when planted into position. Seven Hills have always been great.
WigBag
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Elderflower
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Just goes to show - gardening isn`t an exact science is it? I`m always pleasantly surprised when things I plant do want it says on the box! 
I think planting sprouts on newly manured soil also makes them loose rather than tight, but that would not explain the small size of the plants, in fact, they would probably be tall and more leaf than sprout.
We grew Topline this year and they are ok.
We grew Topline this year and they are ok.
Hello Elderflower
Although the weather has been 'about face' this year as JB has pointed out, the fact that the other allotmenteers have have done well makes me think that the problem is in the way yours have been grown.
In fact I think that you might have two problems. As the plants are still very small it suggests that either they went in late or have suffered some setback from which they eventually recovered. Anyway they haven't had time to be able to get up to full size.
When sprouts blow it is often because the soil is too rich, particularly in N and its not firm enough so the plants can rock. When I'm planting them out I make a depression and stamp the soil down really hard then plant into this. As the plant becomes established I then back fill into the depression, treading the soil in hard around the plant to give extra stability. A scattering of lime is also a good idea. Really large plants might need staking.
All is not lost though as the weather is still mild they may well yet make more growth. I'd firm up the soil, give the plants a good liquid feed and remove the lower badly blown sprouts. You should at least be able to get cuttings of sprout tops, a great veg in its own right, but don't do this until you're sure growth has finally stopped.
John
Although the weather has been 'about face' this year as JB has pointed out, the fact that the other allotmenteers have have done well makes me think that the problem is in the way yours have been grown.
In fact I think that you might have two problems. As the plants are still very small it suggests that either they went in late or have suffered some setback from which they eventually recovered. Anyway they haven't had time to be able to get up to full size.
When sprouts blow it is often because the soil is too rich, particularly in N and its not firm enough so the plants can rock. When I'm planting them out I make a depression and stamp the soil down really hard then plant into this. As the plant becomes established I then back fill into the depression, treading the soil in hard around the plant to give extra stability. A scattering of lime is also a good idea. Really large plants might need staking.
All is not lost though as the weather is still mild they may well yet make more growth. I'd firm up the soil, give the plants a good liquid feed and remove the lower badly blown sprouts. You should at least be able to get cuttings of sprout tops, a great veg in its own right, but don't do this until you're sure growth has finally stopped.
John
The Gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men’s lives, the hours spent fishing Assyrian tablet
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
I am a man and the world is my urinal
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
I am a man and the world is my urinal
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Elderflower
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Oh right! Then all may not be lost then - -
Thanks John.
Thanks John.
John, just to agree, my sprouts (and PSB) are staked against metal poles and tied with thick string. Canes and gardeners twine have all proved insufficient against the winter winds.
Looking back, I now recall having an 'accident' with fish-blood-bone. Rather more than I intended landed among the Topline sprouts and indeed onto the foliage, probably did for them overdosing on nutrients.
Looking back, I now recall having an 'accident' with fish-blood-bone. Rather more than I intended landed among the Topline sprouts and indeed onto the foliage, probably did for them overdosing on nutrients.
WigBag
Hi
My sprouts [bedford filbasket] have grown well but are all blown. I presume I didnt firm the ground enough. Although blown I think the sprouts look very pretty - like little corsages. Can I still cook and eat them in the same way as normal sprouts? At christmas I do them with creme fraiche and wholegrain mustard mmmmm ...
My sprouts [bedford filbasket] have grown well but are all blown. I presume I didnt firm the ground enough. Although blown I think the sprouts look very pretty - like little corsages. Can I still cook and eat them in the same way as normal sprouts? At christmas I do them with creme fraiche and wholegrain mustard mmmmm ...
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Mike Vogel
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Hi Elderflower et al,
I've just picked my first meal's worth of Falstaff, a purple variety from Chase Organics. Yes, many of the sprouts were small and /or blown, but they were really delicious. The ground had been prepared the year before as a raised bed, so I planted them in deeply. I had sown winter tares as a green manure beforehand, so yes, they had rather a lot of nitrogen. I've been guilty on all counts!
My other crop is Bedford Fillbasket from 3-year-old seed. They've grown well, but I have yet to pick any, as I sowed them a bit later than the Falstaff. But I have a packet of Darkmar waiting to be opened next year, so thanks, JB, I'm looking forward to them already.
mike
I've just picked my first meal's worth of Falstaff, a purple variety from Chase Organics. Yes, many of the sprouts were small and /or blown, but they were really delicious. The ground had been prepared the year before as a raised bed, so I planted them in deeply. I had sown winter tares as a green manure beforehand, so yes, they had rather a lot of nitrogen. I've been guilty on all counts!
My other crop is Bedford Fillbasket from 3-year-old seed. They've grown well, but I have yet to pick any, as I sowed them a bit later than the Falstaff. But I have a packet of Darkmar waiting to be opened next year, so thanks, JB, I'm looking forward to them already.
mike
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Hi Mike,
What I find amazing is that the varieties of sprout that all seem to be doing well are not the F1 so called top of the shot plants.
I do grow one F1 which is Montgomery but the others are Evesham Special, Bedford Darkmar 21, Severn Hills and Rubine. As I have said the Darkmar 21 have come on stream at least six weeks early and clashed with the Evesham Special but the others seem to be going according to plan. Severn Hills normally comes into harvest just as Montgomery finishes and it means that I normally have sprouts available from late September until April. You probably will gather that I am rather fond of Sprouts. Rubine normally seems to be the loose cannon and it is rather difficult to predict when they will come on stream but I can recommend them for their flavour.
I plant mine out at the four true leaf stage and that gives then a good long period to grow. I do firm the plants in but not really anything more than I would do to all plants. I plant in a little well as John does but I do this for watering purposes and do not then fill it in like John. Depending on the height they attain I may stake some but my plants are grown in cages of anti white fly netting and therefore are not subjected to high winter winds.
I have already prepared the soil for next years sprouts and it has been well manured and is now covered with Heavy Duty Black Polythene until next spring. During the season I used to be tempted to throw the odd handful of National Growmore down the rows but more often than not forget to do so therefore I am inclined to think that it makes very little difference so I no longer do so.
I am beginning to be of the opinion that the older varieties are the best especially for the taste factor and lets face it as we are all growing to please ourselves and taste plays a very large part of my determining as to what I grow.
JB.
What I find amazing is that the varieties of sprout that all seem to be doing well are not the F1 so called top of the shot plants.
I do grow one F1 which is Montgomery but the others are Evesham Special, Bedford Darkmar 21, Severn Hills and Rubine. As I have said the Darkmar 21 have come on stream at least six weeks early and clashed with the Evesham Special but the others seem to be going according to plan. Severn Hills normally comes into harvest just as Montgomery finishes and it means that I normally have sprouts available from late September until April. You probably will gather that I am rather fond of Sprouts. Rubine normally seems to be the loose cannon and it is rather difficult to predict when they will come on stream but I can recommend them for their flavour.
I plant mine out at the four true leaf stage and that gives then a good long period to grow. I do firm the plants in but not really anything more than I would do to all plants. I plant in a little well as John does but I do this for watering purposes and do not then fill it in like John. Depending on the height they attain I may stake some but my plants are grown in cages of anti white fly netting and therefore are not subjected to high winter winds.
I have already prepared the soil for next years sprouts and it has been well manured and is now covered with Heavy Duty Black Polythene until next spring. During the season I used to be tempted to throw the odd handful of National Growmore down the rows but more often than not forget to do so therefore I am inclined to think that it makes very little difference so I no longer do so.
I am beginning to be of the opinion that the older varieties are the best especially for the taste factor and lets face it as we are all growing to please ourselves and taste plays a very large part of my determining as to what I grow.
JB.
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Mike Vogel
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That's very interesting, John. Everything you've said about F1 echoes what I've just been reading in Jane Perrowne's book on growing your own as well as the Real Seed Catalogue [well. they would say that, wouldn't they]. When I get more time , I intend to subscribe to the Heritage Seed Library and to "adopt" a veg via Garden Organic.
I have sort of prepared my sprout bed for next year, but I doubt whether I've done it properly. I've sown a nitrogen-fixing green manure [so they'll have too much nitrogen again], but in another part I'm growing garlic, so I'll be putting sprouts there when I've harvested that crop. That is also not on a raised bed, so I'll be growing brassicas in both raised and non-raised beds and will be interested in what transpires.
mike
I have sort of prepared my sprout bed for next year, but I doubt whether I've done it properly. I've sown a nitrogen-fixing green manure [so they'll have too much nitrogen again], but in another part I'm growing garlic, so I'll be putting sprouts there when I've harvested that crop. That is also not on a raised bed, so I'll be growing brassicas in both raised and non-raised beds and will be interested in what transpires.
mike
Please support Wallace Cancer Care
http://www.wallacecancercare.org.uk
and see
http://www.justgiving.com/mikevogel
Never throw anything away.
http://www.wallacecancercare.org.uk
and see
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Never throw anything away.
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Colin Miles
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My sprouts are both F1 - Brilliant and Montgomery. I grew them last year as well, Brilliant because they had done so well in the Botanic Gardens 2 years ago and held so well on the plants - they have done well in my garden and taste good - Montgomery because I grew it last year and had some seed left over. The plants haven't done as well as Brilliant though it is a later variety and will maybe develop a bit more, but I'm trying Wellington next year.