[potatogrower]

Hi,

I was meaning to grow these but the tall plant was putting me off due to high winds but i thought what the heck first time give it a try. I have bought a pack fo seeds which i think can be planted about march april (will check), are there any tips anyone can give that would get best results or is it just plant in a tray and plant outside?

can they manage the winds pretty well or do they need some meaty bamboo sticks to hold them up?

thanks,
PG

[savbo]

I'll be making a cage to grow my sprouts in (1st time this year) so I can net them from birds and also tie in some supports. They apparently need really firm soil cos wind rock encourages them to 'blow' - have loose leafy sprouts rather than nice tight buttons

[binner]

i grew them for the first time last year and found they pushed my netting up, so this year i have gone for  brussels half tall from kings, dont grow as high

[DD.]

To grow them, I put one seed per cell in a seed tray insert. (20 to a half tray).

Start off in unheated greenhouse. Trasnplant into 3" pots when they got their first true leaves. Once established, hardened off & then planted out when about 6" tall.

Firm soil is very important as has been mentioned. I actually run a lawn roller over mine, (not if soggy).

[Kristen]

I cover mine with Scaffolders Debris netting to stop the Cabbage White Butterfly decimating the leaves and I put a cane in to tie the plants to when I plant them (so as not to damage the roots later) so that they don't rock about in the wind.

I read somewhere that the roots have very fine hairs on them which, if disturbed, upset the plant (and tend to mean that the spouts "open" before they have made a nice "button".)  So I firm the soil, and tie them to a cane.

[potatogrower]

thanks all,

How tall do they actually grow? 

[DD.]

Depends on the variety, it should say on the packet.

[Goosegirl]

I live in a very windy area and I use hedging stakes hammered into the ground; then I plant my seedlings from the greenhouse against them, let them grow a bit, tie them to the stake,  and keep a check as to when they need re-tying further up the stake - if you don't do this, they will bend over and then are hard to re-tie. I have used netting but now I don't - I prefer to squash the caterpillars and then let the birds eat the creepy-crawlies that get on them in autumn which netting prevents them doing.

[binner]

mine were around 3ft this year

[potatogrower]

got bosworth F1 variety. Anyone have any experience of growing this variety?

[flitwickone]

i firmed mine in and covered with a cage of debris netting however the wind still got them and they blew so this year i will make a wind jam and than cage them i take solace that they grew tall and strong and had masses of sprouts but the they just blew 

[tontom]

my sprouts where just covered with whitefly whch just sucked the life out of the leaves but the buttons were ok to eat until i went to pick the last 5 plants and all the sprouts had turned brown this weekend. I did cover with debris netting too!It won't stop me from growing again this year though

[JohnB47]

Sorry, no experience of growing bosworth but one tip from me - if you have pigeons anywhere near your plot, you MUST cover the plants immediately when you transplant them out.

Otherwise you might as well put up a big sign in pigeon english saying - "here hungry pigeons - tuck into this lot, I don't mind". Believe me, 24 hours uncovered and they're gone!

[azubah]

there were 13 hungry pigeons in the trees behind my shed the other day. My brasiccas are always netted...and a lot of other plants too!

[SkipRat]

I start my seeds off in root trainers in an unheated G/H around begining of April, when they reach 5/6 inches they are hardened off in a coldframe then planted out in reasonably firm ground that has been dressed with growmore. Then the most important step in my opinion is that i stake each plant when around a foot high as this helps prevent wind rock that can cause the sprouts to blow. I have used this method for the last 5 years and my sprouts have been perfect every year