[Ropster]

What are your favorite Brussels

I grew red ones (Falstaff) last year and wasn't impressed, they very small. tasted OK but by the time they were pealed there wasn't much left

[DD.]

Agree with Falstaff, grew them once a few years back and that was it.

Nelson and Trafalgar (must be some connection), have both performed well for me this year.

Grown under debris netting which kept both the butterfly & pigeons off.

[Tattyanne456]

I,ve had good success with Trafalgar too! Even the neighbours kids who hate brussels enjoyed them!

[fletcherbaker]

Sorry to gatecrash the thread here but iv never grew brussels and really want to this year,what are the  best types im after button size sprout thanks !

[Lee1978]

Been really impressed with Trafalgar last year. I am going to try some Maximus this season as i have heard that it is good.
Lee

[Jonajo]

Nautical and Dominator are two of my favourites.

But even the less flavoursome varieties are enhanced significantly by steaming for just 3-4 mins, then lightly stir frying with garlic and bacon.

[Lardman]

Had very good results from Trafalgar and Maximus, with trafalgar having the edge on taste.

I was looking for a late variety this year and mine are normally all gone by boxing day. 

[JohnB47]

I read somewhere that the F1 varieties (of which Trafalgar is one) are bread so that all sprouts on each plant are ready at once - to make things easier for the professional growers.

Having said that, I grew Doric F1 for the first time last year and they were very good - just finishing picking them now. The fact that they were mostly all ready to pick at the same time didn't really matter 'cos they stayed good on the plant for ages - very few blew.

I might go for trafalgar this year bearing in mind the repeated recommendations on this thread.

[DD.]

I've been picking mine from the bottom upwards since November,

[mr Isaccs]

I grew sprouts for the first time last year (Evesham special), they were really sweet and flavoursome, the only problem was that there were very few of them on the bushell and they were the size of marbles, they took an age to peel.
     I had a few plugs left over and so gave them to a neighbouring plot holder and whilst down the allotment the other day I noticed that his bushells are full to bursting of golf ball size sprouts.
     All I can say is that it must be mainly down to soil preperation and feed given.
I'm trying Agincore f1 this year.

[greenhead]

I have no luck with Brussels - Have tried several varieties all suffer from loose or burst sprouts.  What am I doing wrong?  (sorry for gatecrashing)

[DD.]

Is your ground rock hard?

It needs to be!

[mr Isaccs]

My ground certainly wasn't hard.
After taking on the plot in March I had to sieve the entire area about 2 ft deep to try getting rid of all the twitch grass ( it was totally overgrown).
So I may have better luck this year now the groung has settled, thinking about it that's probably why my cauli's and cabbages failed too.

[greenhead]

 Ah, Thanks DD - my soil is deep dug with plenty of compost and the plants are put in with some Lime - Will I have to hire a steam roller?

[DD.]

Ground needs to be hard for brassicas. I actually ran over my patch last year with a lawn roller. (When dry so as not to spoil the structure).

Don't lime and manure at the same time, the is a chemical reaction which releases a lot of nitrogen resulting in rapid, leafy growth.

Put them in ground manured during the previous years.