Brussels Sprouts

[Monika]

Our Brussels sprouts 'Montgomery' are doing very well and I have noticed that the bottom leaves are not going soft and yellow as they usually do when the sprouts are ready to pick. Our allotment neighbour has been taking off most of his sprout leaves, leaving the stalks just covered with sprouts. Is there any merit in taking off perfectly healthy sprout leaves or should I leave them on until I actually pick the sprouts?

[Johnboy]

Hi Monika,
I really do not think it makes the slightest difference. I have always left my leaves in tact but if they start to deteriorate then and only then do I nip them off prior to picking time. You see then with the leaves removed in the seed catalogues but that is only so as to get a photograph for the would-be customer to see what they grow like.
I nip the leaves off as I pick to make easier picking. I then pick the tops off for 'greens'.
JB.

[Monika]

Thank you, Johnboy, so I will continue as I have always done, just taking them off when I pick the sprouts from the bottom or when they go yellow before then - just like you do!

[allium]

I always leave the leaves on as long as they are green.These are the food factories and late sprouts will still befilling up for a while yet especially near the top of the stem.

[Binky]

My sprouts are really pathetic this year. They started quite well and then didn't seem to want to grow. The massive whitefly attack didn't help much either. The buttons are just beginning to form but are still very small. Would a liquid feed do any good? Or is it too late?

[glallotments]

MIne were pulled up and dumped - they were useless!

[Binky]

The old boy on the next plot pulled his up as well .... but I live in hope!

[realfood]

I hope that you harvested the tops for a tasty vegetable before you dumped the plants. I always eat the tops and the shoots in late Spring, when there is nothing else available.

[glallotments]

The tops were in a very sorry state and in no way suitable for eating. The ones that had shown any decent growth were thick with whitefly and sooty mould!

[Mike Vogel]

Bedfordshire is top Brussels growing soil, so I've not had much to complain about. I too have had to put up with whitefly and cabbage white larvae, but the sooty mould has only appeared late in winter. But this year's plants are looking really good, with no whitefly that I can see and no caterpillars because I covered them all with enviromesh. I sowed them at the end of April, grew them on in pots of home-made compost and planted them out in July. They seemed to struggle at first, and it is only now that the sprouts are beginning to show, but I am optimistic for the harvest.

[glallotments]

We had ours covered too so no caterpillars. We also started them in pots indoors and planted them out - it was after they were planted out that they went downhill - next year we will have to try and look after them better as we love sprouts!

[Johnboy]

The thing that strikes me is that nobody mentions the variety of Sprout they are growing. Sprouts start producing from September on depending on the variety. Amongst the Sprouts I grow each year a late variety called Severn Hills which doesn't come on stream until February and generally goes on until April and at this time has not formed any sprouts at all. So maybe a few people may well be worrying unnecessarily.
For all the F1 varieties on the market I think that the open pollinated variety Bedford Darkmar 21 is the best tasting of them all. This variety has given me my Christmas Lunch sprouts for many a year.
JB.

[glallotments]

Hi Johnboy
Wasn't lack of sprouts that made us dig them up it was the facts that the plants were just very very poor and were not growing.

Our varieties were Wellington and United

[Johnboy]

Hi Glallotments,
Did you have White Fly on the plants when they were young?
JB.

[glallotments]

No the whitefly came much later.

Maybe we just dodn't look after them well enough. The site is very open and we did have some strong winds.