Sprouts ... do we cut the leaves off?

[Farmer_Gyles]

Pics on packets of brussel sprout seeds always show the sprouts on the main stem, but no leaves
my sprouts have huge leaves
do i cut the leaves off or leave them on?

[skegblade]

Keep them on FG. You can eat them as well as the sprouts. It will be cheaper too; you'll pay the best part of �1.00 for sprout tops in a supermarket. Just treat the same as you would spring greens.

Phil

[Cutecumber]

Skegblade is right about the tops, but the leaves on the stem gradually die off and it is good practice to remove them to help air circulation and prevent fungus from spreading. There is no need to remove leaves until they have finished their job - while they are green and firm, they are still helping the plant to grow.

By the time the sprouts are ready to pick, there won't be many, if any, leaves up the stem - if you look at a photo with tightly packed sprouts, you can see there's little room for the leaves!

I have only grown sprouts a couple of times, but this is my experience of what they do.

Experts please confirm or deny!!

[Cutecumber]

I found some useful images on the summary of the RHS trial for Brussel Sprouts, here:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/documen...prouts2005.pdf

[Curvy Vixen]

I took most of the leaves off of mine as per instructions on Google somewhere ~ sorry, don't have the website to hand!

But they have been coming on a treat since I did it. You have to leave 4 or 5 leaves at the top of the plant so that the plant pushes all the good stuff up the stem to those leaves and that obviously 'grows' the sprouts up the stems. Hope this makes sense Pretty sure there was a more 'technical' explanation but I don't have it to hand!

I also broke about an inch off the top bit off too...bit like you do with tomatoes to stop the plant producing leaves from the top...but I didn't read that anywhere I just did it as an experiment!

[Farmer_Gyles]

thanks guys - different opinions there so will experiment and see what happens - cut some leaves from some of them ...
in any case, i planted them a bit too close together ....