Grow Your Own Magazine

I'm getting a bit fed up with trying to grow sprouts!
I've tried planting them deep, heeling them in and staking them but they always seem to blow open.
Is it something like stress causing it ie lack of nutrients, poor soil etc.
Does anyone know of a variety that shows some resistance to blowing?
I would be really grateful for any advice

Where are you growing them Baggyman? Open ground or (as some Grapes are trying) in containers? Sprouts need quite firm soil - mine is very light so I've given up growing them too - no matter how I try they suffer from wind rock.

open ground and in fairly heavy clay soil.

Have you fed them? They need watering with a high nitrogen feed or dig in broadcast some sulphate of ammonia or dried blood (BFB would do). Probably a bit late for this year though. Try again next year and feed them early. Good old horse muck, or home made fertiliser where human urine has been used as an accelerator, is very helpful too in clay soil.

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Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

I have light sandy soil (not ideal for sprouts) and I never use horse muck, just a little BFB at planting time. I firm the soil around the sprouts (all brassicas in fact) by treading on it, and I earth the stalks up too.

Still, some will blow (Evesham were awful) and some are great (Trafalgar, Maximus).

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~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

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Yep I totally agree..............however much I like using open pollenated varieties wherever possible....................... I always find in the case of sprouts that F1's perform a lot better!

Glad to hear that the NEW clubroot resistant variety Crispus F1 is a Maximus type!

'Blowing' is supposed to be associated with not healing in and consolidating ground at planting time, but some varieties just don't perform for me WHATEVER I do for them.
As TS says Trafalgar and Maximus have done well for me this year!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Thanks for the advice.
By the way somene at he lottie has reccommended a variety called sheriff but I can't find any mention of them anywhere. Are they still available?

The secret with sprouts is to compress the soil after digging by walking on it until you think that nothing could grow.
When you are satisfied that the ground is compressed enough, then do it again!
Make holes with a dibber which should now be quite hard work and fill each hole with water.
Allow to drain and insert the sprout plants, filling any space with soil.
Now compress the soil around each plant by standing on it, and using the ball of the feet, go round in a circle.
You should now have a slight depression around each plant which will retain water when you now water again.
Allaboutallotments

I have always been told (by gardeners much more experieced than me) that here are three main reasons why sprouts blow. As has already been mentioned not firming them in well enough, poor seed quality (not much you can do about that one) and overwatering.

This months GYO has an article about growing sprouts. One tip is to transplant young plants into a trench. That allows you to fill in the trench as they grow in order to give the plants more support. It also promotes additional root growth (again offering more support to the plant).

Having said all that I have two rows of Brussels Sprouts, all planted at the same time and in the same way. Most are doing very well but a few have got some blown sprouts on them.

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It is the doom of man, that they forget.

I copied the next alloment to mine he has been there for 24 years, dig a hole a spade width squared about 6 to 8 inches deep then plant out in the base of hole when brussels get tall enough fill the hole back in. then you get extra 6 to 8 inches of the stem of the plant in ground,this done when you walked on soil before digging holes

I grow a variety named cascade which matures in time for xmas lunch. Sprouts don't need anything special. keep the ground fertile by digging in farmyard manure in a good rotation system. Brassicas all benefit from having the surrounding soil well tramped in.

So, my sprouts are rubbish again this year. I managed to pick 9 sprouts off 5 plants, the rest have blown.

What a waste of space: I'll plant more black kale & cabbages next year instead

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~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I promise not to mention the rather excellent Search function again. Feel free to slap me if I do

I forgot to grow any this year The OH is not amused that he won't have lovely red sprouts for Christmas dinner, but shop-bought green ones instead!

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Sarah

http://www.hypermobility.org http://wixypixies.blogspot.com/


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How do you get on with red ones Sarz? I fancy growing some next year in the hope that when the grandkids come at Christmas they may actually eat some. It worked with multi-coloured carrots and yellow toms., so if red sprouts don't have any complications, I thought I might give them a try.

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Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

Mine are just a few little leaves clinging on where the rest of the sprout has blown away.

Shop sprouts this year.

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My hopes are not always realized but I always hope (Ovid)

I grew Falstaff for 3 years and they did really well, nice tight little red sprouts. The OH says that they are slightly 'nuttier' and less bitter than green ones.
Personally, I don't really like either, and usually eat them disguised in a forkful of mash...

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Sarah

http://www.hypermobility.org http://wixypixies.blogspot.com/


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Ditto, and same trouble

I'm going to have another go next season (already got the seeds), then I won;t bother again if they blow this time around. I'll use the space for something I can grow properly.

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A Year in the Veg Plot

Mine haven't blown but haven't grown much either and definitely won't be ready for Christmas

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

Love the thread title

Bottom to half way up have blown, the top ones are better but are still full of white fly poo. Not good. Not good at all. A bloke down t'lotments says he whacks the soil with a plank of wood beforehand - but then it did give him a hernia so....

I thought mine weren't great as the bottom half has blown on all the plants even though the top halves are full of nice tight plump sprouts.
However I am now glowing with pride as zazen cam round this morning and she reckoned I'd done pretty well
Considering it's my first attempt and I made LOADS of mistakes, (such as planting them in lovely soft new topsoil), I'm really very impressed at such praise.

My plants are short, squat, very green and healthy looking, but of course have no sprouts! I remember asking for advice on here in the Spring when I discovered that the plants I had bought from a nursery were pot bound so I had been told not to expect much. Suppose I can eat the tops as a green and another good lesson learned. They really shouldn't have sold these woody specimens, but I will not be falling for that again, I'm a bit more experienced now! Congrats to anyone who's managed them for Christmas dinner.

Smug trug time! For Christmas dinner I shall have, sprouts, new potatoes, parsnips,carrots, swede and even some fresh sage and stored onion for the stuffing.................all from the allotment!

For some reason this year my plantings and croppings have went to plan and I haven't needed to buy any veg in months!

I love it when a plan comes together!

(And yes, I am a smug git!)

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

It's smugness well earned!

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mmmmMMMmmm. Tea. http://www.charteas.com

Coming late to this thread and skipping to the end, I have to say I have been pleasently surprised this year, normally mine all blow too, but this year given plenty of neglect and no lime added to the raised bed I have half a dozen plants that are worthy of Xmas lunch.

Maybe I just tried too hard before......

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The cats' valet.

I saw the news yesterday about a farmer in Lincolnshire that grows sprouts, he had a field full of perfect sprouts, not one blown.
So..... tell me how he does it then?

Probably about half mine have blown, or were knocked about by the aphid/whitefly swarms we had in late summer. A good result by my standards.

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"Orinoco was a fat and lazy Womble"

I remembered that my late Father who was a head gardener on a private estate used to keep notes in his books and diaries on how he had grown things. I never remember seeing more than a handful of blown sprouts in all my childhood years so I spent yesterday evening going through his old notes to see if I could find anything on sprouts, and a very enjoyable evening it was too, much better than endless repeats on TV.

The gist of his sprouts notes (as interpreted by me over a bottle of red) are I am sure now old fashioned and simplistic and most grapes will be fully aware of them so I ask them to forgive me, but I put them on here to help newer gardeners. If just one person picks up one thing they didn't know then it will be worth it.

1. Don't plant seed in final position. Start them in a seperate bed or seed tray, depending on how much room you have. Transplant them during the evening to minimise stress.

2. Try to plant them in rotation with legumes (beans or peas). The soil will have been manured for these the previous season so do not re-manure although packing compost round them is fine especially in a light sandy soil.

3. Spacing is very important. Don't plant them less than 24" apart in every direction.

4. When transplanting, firm the soil down very hard. Loose soil means loose sprouts. If you have a soil that is naturally sandy then incorporate as much organic matter as you can as long before putting sprouts in as you can. If you can earth up the stalk as it grows, firming down as you go.

5. When weeding, particularly with a hoe, don't go too deep. just chop the heads off weeds.

6. Feeding with a foliar feed not a root feed is very acceptable to the sprout.

7. Part shade is better than full sun (or full shade).

He also advocates nipping out the tops to encourage maturing but I understand that this is now frowned upon.

I'm sure there must be other things either in or missing from the rather disjointed notes I found but other grapes may be able to add them. One of my own is that f1 hybrids are less prone to blowing. They also in MHO don't usually taste so good as the old fashioned varieties.

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Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

Yuck i hate sprouts there one of my most hated vegetable

Ow bin yer Baggyman? (I was born in Old Hill in the Black Country).
Well, I grew sprouts for the first time this year on the lottie and I didn't firm the soil enough when I planted them out. They have been growing at a 45 degree angle to the ground (forgot to stake them as well until it was too late), but apart from 2 plants which blew, the rest have been fine. I have eaten all the blown sprouts and their tops already and they were very tasty.
D'you reckon it was beginners luck? I'm going to grow lots more next year and will try and follow all the advice given here by other grapes.
Don't give up trying though - you're bound to succeed in the end and it will be worth it