the brussels sprouts

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rowlandwells

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the brussels sprouts
« on: February 18, 2020, 09:04 »
having seen a very good response to my topic on the Humble cabbage I'm turning my attention to the brussels sprouts it basically the same theme as the cabbage so many varieties to choose from mostly F1's and each seed catalogue offering different varieties so what seed should I buy what seed should I try do I keep to my old variety or do I go for something new

it would be I think of interest to many fellow gardeners including me to get an opinion of what variety of brussels you actually grow some varieties claim  outstanding flavour  some club root resistant some sweet varieties and so on its apparent the price is much higher for the F1's than the OP's and for most Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without there brussels sprouts

so what variety will you be growing this season ?

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jambop

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Re: the brussels sprouts
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2020, 11:17 »

Just my opinion but for me F1 every time when it comes to brassicas you just get better produce. I have grown an F1 called Brilliant and it was  :D For Broccoli I have grown F1 Marathon and again it has never failed to give lovely heads. It seems to me that the plants just grow with that much more reliability and vigor.

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lettice

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Re: the brussels sprouts
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2020, 12:22 »
Have grown a variety called Groninger for over a decade and a half now. They are De Ree seeds.
I grow them in the same bed that grows my Broad beans. Once the broad beans have finished and pulled up I mix in a load of homemade compost, check the ph (its always fine) and then plant out the sprouts that I start off from seed in the greenhouse.
Have those Sprouts from Autumn through to late Winter.
They are very tasty sprouts, good size and produce beautiful Brussel Sprout tops.

I also grow some in a small raised bed.

I did for a few years also grow Crispus F1 as well as my Groninger. They cropped well as medium sized sprouts. Cropped very early, producing late September to late December.
Found after that, in January they all popped.
They did not have any kind of a top that survived if you like Brussels Sprout tops.

Other varieties I have tried over the years that have not been as good and frankly disappointing.
Evesham tasted lovely, but the plants were small and not that great a yield per plant.
A couple of real failures for me;
Camelot produced large tops but the sprouts were never tight, so all of the sprouts blew on growing.
Windsor produced mostly small sprouts and were very sweet. The yield was poor. They did however produce fair tops.

Only problems I find with Brussels Sprouts are the cabbage white are attracted towards them.
As I have said on here before, I use my homemade cabbage white dummies and do not get any problems from them once they are deployed.
It may be worth covering them for you, but I do not as my dummies work well here.
Have not known anything else attack them.

My tips that has worked for me;
Plant the out in the ground firmly.
I have early in the sprout forming season had the occasional blown one and picked it off. Have been told this stops others doing the same. It has always worked for me with my Groninger and tend after that initial one or two, have no more blowing.
Check that the base of your plants stays firm. I do earth up a few times during their growing time and firm it in well. I also in Autumn wrap a few strings around the cropped area to help with them not bending over too much in any strong winds.
Tend to let the rain do the watering for them, so be careful not to overwater. They will not be happy in soggy ground.

My crop is coming to an end now. Here is some of them I picked this morning.
The top and nicely formed prepared sprouts ready for steaming later.
2020-02-18 11.38.00.jpg

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rowlandwells

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Re: the brussels sprouts
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2020, 15:17 »
Well Lettice you've really through me from what your saying never heard of the variety called croginer but as I've said many times some of these varieties are always worth trying I've looked at some growers varieties like Dragan and Neptuno because they seemed good F1 varieties cost around about £5.50 per 50 seeds and I agree the tops are worth cooking I've also been told by some old time gardeners that they have put there brussels plants in the plot with an iron bar to keep the plants solid in the ground

please don't think I'm an ignoramus but not aware what you refer to as home made cabbage white dummies whatever they are they seem to work for you and I'm very interested in your Dummies because we have to net all our plants or loose um

I love to here knowledge from folks like you who  get results and pass that knowledge onto novices like me  because I'm of the opinion we are never to old to learn new tricks when you sow your brussels seed do you set them in a tray and prick out or sow the seed directly in a pots or rootrainers anyway very good advise thank you

and jambob I was going to do another topic on broccoli and calabrese  but you've beat me to it we grew Stromboli calabrese and broccoli Burbank and also  kale pentland brig doing the same this season I've also had good feedback for those who have grew F1marathon

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lettice

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Re: the brussels sprouts
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2020, 16:18 »

please don't think I'm an ignoramus but not aware what you refer to as home made cabbage white dummies whatever they are they seem to work for you and I'm very interested in your Dummies because we have to net all our plants or loose um

I love to here knowledge from folks like you who  get results and pass that knowledge onto novices like me  because I'm of the opinion we are never to old to learn new tricks when you sow your brussels seed do you set them in a tray and prick out or sow the seed directly in a pots or rootrainers anyway very good advise thank you

An old thread on here is what I use for cabbage white dummies. Got the idea from here and have not looked back since.
https://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=114611.0

I sow my seed in trays, like in the pic below (that is not them growing :) ). For the Groninger, I sow in those trays in March and plant in May. They usually have a set of about two or three healthy leaves by May.
I sow nine seeds in three rows of three in the larger brown ones and eight plants in two rows of four in the black trays. I put a few holes in the bottom  of the trays for drainage.
Sprouts are quite tough plants starting out, so never had any problem transferring from those trays to the ground. The trick is the planting in your firm ground. I use a dibber about the width of an inch to make the hole for planting them in. I space them about 18 inches between plants and rows.
sprout seed tray.jpg
« Last Edit: February 18, 2020, 16:21 by lettice »

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DHM

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Re: the brussels sprouts
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2020, 07:26 »
Last year I grew Ruby Crunch, a red variety. Absolutely delicious and brought some colour to Christmas dinner too!



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