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OK so back on episode 200 the Ask me anything episode, someone
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asked if I would do an episode on growing Brussels sprouts.
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How many times can I say episode in one sentence?
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I said no at the time because I hadn't yet successfully grown
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them, but I indicated that it may be soon because Brussels
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were absolutely having a moment in my garden this spring and it
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was looking good. Well, here we are and we are
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talking Brussels sprouts because I managed to successfully grow
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and harvest a summer crop from a spring planting and I have round
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two of seedlings started already for planting soon for a fall
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harvest. So today on Just grow something,
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we're talking Brussels sprouts, the background of the plant, how
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to grow it, what pests and disease plague it and how to
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harvest and store. It's a full blown crop specific
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episode that will hopefully demystify growing these teeny
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tiny cabbage. Look alikes in your own garden.
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Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen, I started
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gardening in a small corner of my suburban backyard and now 18
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years later, I've got a degree in horticulture and operate a 40
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acre market farm. I believe there is power or in
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food and that everyone should know how to grow at least a
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little bit of their own. On this podcast I share evidence
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based techniques to help you plant, grow, harvest and store
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all your family's favorites. Consider me your friend in the
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garden. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
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Thank you for joining me this week.
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If you are new here, I am your host, Karen Velez.
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I am glad that you are here for all my junior gardeners.
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I am glad that you are listening alongside mom or dad or grandma
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or grandpa or whoever it is that is greasing your ear holes with
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my voice today. I am very glad that you guys are
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all here. If you are new to the podcast, I
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have all kinds of other resources over on my website,
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justgrowsomethingpodcast.com. You can find articles and you
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can sign up for the newsletter and all kinds of other stuff
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over there. I've also got a YouTube channel
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that feeds onto that website as well.
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So Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts are a member of
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the Brassica family, which means that they are very closely
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related to cabbage and broccoli and kale.
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They are small leafy green vegetables that look like
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miniature little cabbage that grow on stalks and they are
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either totally prized for the unique flavor that they give off
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or they are totally despised by people who were forced to eat
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them in maybe just a boiled, you know, manner or whatever and
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never really was treated to Brussels sprouts that were
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cooked the proper way. I know a lot of people that
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absolutely refuse to touch Brussels sprouts because they
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were just served boiled sprouts. And trust me when I say I had
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zero desire to eat Brussels sprouts until somebody cooked
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them for me the proper way. So this is not going to be a
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cooking show, but I'm just telling you, if you can find a
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really good recipe, go for it because you would be very, very
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surprised. If you like cabbage or anything
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sort of in that cabbagey family, you will like Brussels sprouts.
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You just got to cook them the right way, OK?
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Brussels sprouts are native to the Mediterranean and were
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cultivated as early as the 13th century.
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They gained their name from the city of Brussels, which is why
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they are Brussels sprouts with an S Brussels sprouts, not
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Brussels sprouts. It sort of blends together when
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we say it, but that's what happens because that is where
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they became popular in the 16th century.
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They are believed to have been selectively bred from wild kale
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plants or wild cabbage plants, which essentially is how we got
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all of our brassicas. Everything that we eat that's in
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the Brassica family, kale and cabbage and cauliflower and
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broccoli and Brussels sprouts all kind of started in the same
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space. They were what we would view as
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being a wild kale. They weren't a a head developing
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type of a plant. And different cultures kind of
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took that plant and cultivated them, selecting for the
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characteristics that they preferred, Whether it was
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forming a head or if it was forming a flower or it was
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forming a stalk that had the little tiny heads on it,
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whatever it is, or just remaining in a leafy form.
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So that's how we have all these different versions of our
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brassicas, but they all kind of started with the same wild
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plant. And actually the first written
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records of Brussels sprouts appear in the 16th century.
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And of course, historically they were not just used as a food
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source, but they were also valued for their medicinal
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properties because they are very rich in vitamins and minerals.
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So they were used to sort of boost the immune system and
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support people's overall health. Nutritionally, Brussels sprouts
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really are a sort of powerhouse. 1/2 cup serving has 28 calories.
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It's got less than, you know, a half a gram of fat, about 16
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milligrams of sodium, 5 1/2 grams of carbs, just about 2G of
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protein and 2G of fiber, which is very notable because that's
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about 7% or so of our daily value that we're supposed to get
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in fiber every day. And that's from 1/2 cup serving.
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So they are very rich in vitamins, particularly vitamin K
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and vitamin C. They are a good source of
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manganese and potassium and folate.
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This that fiber, that dietary fiber they contain helps to
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promote digestive health. And they also contain some very
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beneficial antioxidants compounds like camphorol and
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flavonoids and polyphenols. These are all known to be
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anti-inflammatory and anti anti oxidant.
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Now of course if you have stomach sensitivities or IBS or
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anything that requires a low fiber diet, then Brussels
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sprouts may not be the veggie for you.
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They are in the cabbage family and those cruciferous vegetables
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are notorious for causing stomach upset and that is partly
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from that high fiber content. So if you are new to Brussels
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sprouts, let's just start your culinary journey with a little
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bit of caution. Now what I have found is that
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growing Brussels sprouts requires patient and some very
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specific care. This year was not my first year
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attempting to grow Brussels sprouts.
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I have planted them in the spring multiple times and I have
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attempted them in the fall a couple of times and neither of
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which did I have very good success.
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So I was really excited this year to see that they were
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developing beautifully and realized at that point that I
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had no idea what I was supposed to do with them after they
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started to develop. So we'll get into the harvesting
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techniques here in a little bit. But what I have figured out is
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that the planting time definitely matters, The moisture
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level definitely matters, and the temperature, right?
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So the first thing that we want to do with Brussels sprouts is
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make sure that we're choosing the right variety, something
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that suits your climate and your growing conditions.
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Shorter plants tend to mature earlier and tend to be more cold
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tolerant. So if you are in a short season
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area, this may be helpful for you in getting a crop to
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maturity. Or if you are in a much warmer
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southern climate here in the Northern hemisphere with a very
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short window of cool weather, that can also be very helpful.
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So some of the really popular varieties are Jade Cross.
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This one is fairly early maturing.
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It is very disease resistant. It is also fairly heat tolerant.
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It matures in about 95 days from transplant.
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There is Long Island improved. This is a heirloom variety.
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It is known for its very large sprouts.
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It takes a bit longer. It's around a 90 to 100 days
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maturity from transplants. Diablo is one that is also very
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cold Hardy and is supposed to produce very high yields, but it
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takes the longest. It's about 110 days to maturity.
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So you really do need a long, cool growing season for this
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one. What I opted for was Dagon and
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it's a mid season variety, so it's sort of, you know, in the
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middle of the number number of days to maturity.
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But it has a tendency to hold well in the field.
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And to me this meant I could have something that I could
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plant in both the spring and in the summer for a fall harvest.
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So here we are. That's the variety that I'm
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growing, and it tends to mature in about 100 days from
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transplant. The reason that, you know,
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Brussels sprouts are so temperamental is because they
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thrive in that cooler weather, which is very typical for our
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brassicas. And so that's why Brussels
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sprouts are technically usually planted in the late summer for a
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fall harvest. That's why they tend to be, you
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know, more of a plant that we see used as a side dish for
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like, our fall and winter holidays, right, Thanksgiving
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and Christmas, that sort of thing.
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They require a very long growing season.
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Most of them are, you know, maybe the fastest ones I've seen
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are about 80 days all the way up to 120 days from transplanting
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to maturity. Now, if you live in a warmer
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climate that doesn't get a whole bunch of super deep freezes over
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the winter time, you can actually plant them in the late
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winter for an early spring harvest.
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I planted in spring this year like I said, and then I have
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started plants already and have those plants getting ready to go
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in probably here in the next week or so.
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Usually my fall brassicas are going in last week of July,
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maybe the first week of August. It all depends on what the
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temperatures are doing and with the intention of having them
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ready to harvest for those, you know, fall, maybe early winter
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time frame. So when you are figuring out
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where to plant your Brussels in the garden, we're talking full
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sun exposure. So at least six hours of direct
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sunlight per day. Again, this can be broken up.
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We've talked about this before just because you only get, you
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know, a few hours in the morning and then there's a break in the
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afternoon. If you get a couple more hours
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in the evening then that counts as your six hours, preferably 8.
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I've seen with most of the brass because they really do prefer
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closer to that 8 hours. But if all you have is 6 hours,
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it's fine. They will get there, they're
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just going to take longer to get to maturity.
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You also want to make sure that the soil is well draining.
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It does like the water, it doesn't like standing in the
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water so rich and organic matter.
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And then they've got a really wide ideal soil pH, anything
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from six point O to 7.5. So if you have an area that's a
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little bit more alkaline, they will grow just fine.
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As a matter of fact, the field that these are planted in this
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year actually is on the alkaline side.
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I think I was sitting at about 7.2 the last time I checked and
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they have done absolutely beautifully.
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So of course it's always a really good idea to incorporate
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compost or some well rotted rotted manure just to improve
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that fertility and to help the drainage.
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Just like all the other brassicas, they can be heavy
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feeders. So if you need to boost your
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soil fertility, you just want to do a sort of balanced fertilizer
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like a 10/10/10 that can be added at the beginning in order
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to be able to sort of boost that that soil fertility.
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But keep in mind that they will benefit from a good amount of
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nitrogen just like our other brassicas.
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So you could also add something like a blood meal or a fish
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emulsion that can be beneficial. But per usual, make sure you're
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doing a soil test and you're just not adding these things
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Willy nilly into your soil or into your raised containers.
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Now, you can grow Brussels sprouts in pots.
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I mean, of course you can grow them in your raised planters.
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That's fine. They will do just fine.
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You want to make sure they're at least about a foot to 18 inches
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deep. But you can actually do these
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like in a pot on your patio. And these are actually very
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beneficial because if it's you're growing in a small space,
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they grow vertically on their own just naturally, and you can
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harvest off of them pretty continuously.
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So you just want to make sure that you have a pot that is at
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least 12 to 14 inches in diameter, again, 12 to 18 inches
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deep because Brussels sprouts do have a pretty substantial root
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system and they're going to need that space to grow and to be
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able to feed that green growth. Just make sure that the pot has,
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you know, significant drainage because we don't want those, you
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know, roots to get water logged. And then just use a high quality
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potting soil, something that's rich in organic matter.
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Make sure that it's well draining as usual.
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I'm going to caution when you're doing containers, do not use
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garden soil. That can be too heavy.
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It's going to get compacted into those containers.
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It's going to be very difficult for those roots to move through
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the pot. So make sure that you are using
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a potting mix. If you can amend that potting
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mix with some compost or again, some well rotted manure, that's
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going to provide some of those essential nutrients.
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It's always a good idea when you are growing in smaller
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containers like that to make sure that you have some sort of
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fertilizer or amendment on hand that you can feed those plants
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with throughout the season. Because in a smaller volume of
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soil they are going to use those nitrogen, those nutrients faster
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than they would if they had access to more soil volume.
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So just make sure that you are feeding them on a pretty steady
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basis. Just set yourself, you know, a
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good three or four week schedule and just feed from there.
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So if you're going to grow Brussels sprouts from seed, you
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are going to want to start them about 6 to 8 weeks before your
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last expected frost in the spring or for a fall crop about
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four months before your first expected fall frost.
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So yes, if you're growing them in the fall, this does mean that
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you are going to be transplanting these out in the
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heat of the summer. So keeping those transplants
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cool with mulch and using good watering techniques is going to
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be important. They will mature as the weather
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is cooling and so they will be ready for a late fall or an
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early winter harvest. They do like a warmer soil
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temperature around 70 to 75 Fahrenheit or 21 to 24 Celsius
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for germination. So if you can pop those little
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seeds about 1/4 inch deep into your seed trays or your pots and
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then throw them onto a heat mat and keep the soil consistently
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moist, they should germinate for you within just a few days.
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You can do these directly sown outside, just like all of our
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plants. That is possible.
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You just are going to have to pay attention to when they're
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popping up to make sure that you're protecting them from
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things like cut worms or even birds that will come down and
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try to pick at the little seedlings.
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And then you make sure that you are thinning them properly.
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If you're going to transplant them, you want to wait to do
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this until the seedlings are about four to six inches tall
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and they have at least two sets of true leaves.
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You want to space the plants about 18 to 24 inches apart, and
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if you're doing them in rows, you want those rows to be almost
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3 inches, 3 inches, 3 feet apart.
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So you want to give them room to sort of expand out.
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Again, these are growing up and they're going to be tall, these
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stalks, but then the leaves get fairly big.
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These are abrassica. So think about what cabbage
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leaves look like before they start curling in on themselves
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or what broccoli leaves look like before they start to form
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their heads. Same thing.
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So you want to give them enough room to be able to expand out.
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Doesn't mean that you can't plant other things in between.
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You know, I like to have things interplanted, but you're going
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to plant things that are faster maturing.
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And a good thing to do is to plant some companions with these
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which are going to help with some of the insect pests.
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And it's also going to fill up that space to kind of choke out
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any weeds, give you a different harvestable crop, and and then
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be out of there before the Brussels sprouts truly need that
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entire space. So good companions for Brussels
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are things like onions or garlic.
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I have used sweet alissum and calendula and basically any
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strong herbs that you can put in there.
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I used to plant marigolds with all of my brassicas and I don't
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do that anymore and I will link to the episode where I talked
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about why marigolds are not a good idea.
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But in short I I was doing that in order to keep the aphids and
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the whiteflies out. But I have learned through
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various studies that marigolds actually attract leaf hoppers
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and spider mites and cabbage loopers and many different types
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of flea beetles, which I don't really want in my brassicas.
00:18:02
So I stick to putting marigolds along the outer edges of the
00:18:07
garden and using herbs and alliums and beneficial little
00:18:10
flowers and stuff in between. I also avoid mustard since it is
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in the same family and it sort of attracts the same pests.
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But so most instances I am interplanting with green onions
00:18:22
or scallions. But I have also done fast
00:18:25
growing lettuces and arugula as well.
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And that way those leafy greens are mature and are harvested and
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out of the way by the time the Brussels sprouts or the cabbage
00:18:36
or whatever is is spreading its leaves.
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So those those companion plants are always a really, really good
00:18:43
idea for a lot of reasons. So one of the things that I
00:18:46
figured out this season really made a huge difference in the
00:18:52
growth of my Brussels sprouts was the consistent moisture.
00:18:56
We have had a really wet spring and it's continued on into the
00:19:03
summertime. We also had cooler temperatures
00:19:06
for longer. So even when we had the
00:19:08
temperature spikes that often will cause my brassicas to bolt,
00:19:12
which it did some of my broccoli and my cauliflower did bolt.
00:19:15
The, the, the Brussels sprouts didn't do that.
00:19:20
And I think part of it was because they were saying so wet,
00:19:24
they were being watered so frequently from the rain.
00:19:27
I haven't had to water anything out there.
00:19:29
And of course it was a very, very deep soaking.
00:19:33
So Brussels sprouts require consistent moisture, especially
00:19:38
during dry spells. And normally in the spring by
00:19:40
the time we hit maybe mid June, Mother Nature has turned the
00:19:44
faucet off. Certainly by July it is bone dry
00:19:48
and usually very, very hot. And it just hasn't done that
00:19:52
this year. So I think that is really one of
00:19:54
the reasons why these Brussels have done so well, which means
00:19:58
to me #1 mulching is going to help retain the soil moisture.
00:20:03
It's going to suppress those weeds.
00:20:04
It's going to help to regulate that soil temperature to keep
00:20:07
them cooler. So if you do anticipate it
00:20:10
getting warmer. Early in the season, then add a
00:20:13
really good layer of mulch to help to mitigate that.
00:20:16
Make sure you have a way to water them, which is also going
00:20:18
to cool the soil and is going to help them to continue to stay
00:20:21
cool. But maybe think about adjusting
00:20:24
your planting dates a little bit.
00:20:26
This is one of the really good reasons why we keep a garden
00:20:29
journal, so we can track when it was that we planted and then
00:20:34
look at the temperatures and the moisture conditions and all the
00:20:40
other weather conditions as the season progressed.
00:20:43
And if we look at the pattern and go OK, well this year they
00:20:46
did fabulously well and this year they did horribly.
00:20:49
What was the difference between the two, if I can push that
00:20:52
planting date just a little bit earlier, maybe using row covers
00:20:57
to protect from severe frost because we don't want to kill
00:20:59
off our little seedlings out there.
00:21:01
But maybe that's going to give them a bit longer in the spring
00:21:07
to be able to get to maturity before we really start to get to
00:21:10
those hotter parts of the day. So we said start your seeds 6 to
00:21:15
8 weeks before that last expected frost date in the
00:21:18
spring. If you've been starting with the
00:21:20
six week mark, maybe it's time to move it to the eight week
00:21:24
mark. If you've been doing it at 8
00:21:26
weeks, maybe it's time to push it another week, start them a
00:21:29
little bit earlier and see if that works for you.
00:21:32
I will probably play around with this a little bit next year by
00:21:35
going back and looking historically at what my seasons
00:21:38
have looked like prior to this year and then making adjustments
00:21:42
for the temperatures. And there are online records
00:21:45
that you can see. If you have not kept these
00:21:46
records for yourself. And trust me, I am not writing
00:21:49
down the take the daytime temperatures every single day in
00:21:52
my garden journal. I'm not that crazy.
00:21:54
But there are online resources that you can use to be able to
00:21:58
look at the historical temperatures, you know, every
00:22:01
year individually or what's the average for the last five years,
00:22:04
whatever, and give yourself an idea of when those temperatures
00:22:07
really start to spike consistently in your area and
00:22:10
when the weather starts to dry out.
00:22:12
And you can make your adjustments accordingly.
00:22:16
The other thing that I think helped this year too is I was a
00:22:20
little bit better about making sure that I amended my soil one
00:22:26
more time prior to planting. A lot of the time I'm just
00:22:30
amending in the fall and allowing that to get worked into
00:22:33
the soil over the winter and then immediately planting into
00:22:36
things in the spring. But this year, with all of the
00:22:39
beds that my brassicas were going into, I added a little
00:22:43
extra at the beginning of the season to make sure that there
00:22:46
was plenty of fertility in there.
00:22:48
And those plants have all looked fabulous.
00:22:52
So that I think has also been a key.
00:22:55
So if if you didn't do that or if you haven't added, you know,
00:23:00
in the beginning of the season, you can also just feed them with
00:23:03
a balanced fertilizer about every four to six weeks during
00:23:05
the growing season. Once the sprouts start to form,
00:23:08
you can go ahead and side dress with a little bit of that
00:23:12
nitrogen that we talked about just to kind of support the
00:23:15
development. But you know from what I have
00:23:18
seen, just using a balanced amendment has worked just fine.
00:23:22
Now when they start to get tall, especially if you are growing a
00:23:27
variety that is super tall, you might need to add steaks to
00:23:32
prevent the plants from toppling over.
00:23:34
They kind of start to look almost like palm trees to me.
00:23:38
I start taking the lower leaves off to help improve the air
00:23:41
circulation. Plus that helps direct the
00:23:43
plants energy towards sprout development.
00:23:46
But you know, that means at the top they're going to have all
00:23:48
these tall leaves and they start to get a little top heavy if
00:23:51
you're growing some of the taller ones.
00:23:52
So you might want to have some steaks on hand just to prevent
00:23:56
them from flopping over on you. As we're going through the
00:24:00
season, what are the common pests and diseases that we are
00:24:03
going to have to worry about? Aphids.
00:24:06
OK, we've talked about aphids before.
00:24:07
They are those soft bodied insects that suck the SAP from
00:24:10
the plant. They cause yellowing, they cause
00:24:12
distortion. You can control these just by
00:24:16
spraying them off with a hose if you have the ability to do that.
00:24:19
You can also use an insecticidal soap or a neem oil.
00:24:24
I tend to not worry about aphids too much until I really start to
00:24:27
see a there's a really bad infestation that isn't being
00:24:31
controlled or it is starting to really 'cause damage to the
00:24:35
plants. But nine times out of 10 in my
00:24:37
garden I will see the aphids and then within about a week or so I
00:24:42
will start to see ladybugs or ladybug larvae.
00:24:45
And ladybug larvae are voracious eaters of aphids and so I don't
00:24:50
generally worried about it. The other one out of 10 times,
00:24:54
usually what I'll see is I'll see aphids and then I will see
00:24:57
ants and I will see that the ants are farming the aphids for
00:25:01
the honeydew. And that's a no, no.
00:25:02
We got to get those out of there.
00:25:03
So I just start spraying them down with with water or whatever
00:25:07
just to knock them off and get them out of there.
00:25:10
Another thing that you'll see problems with this cabbage worms
00:25:12
just like any other Brassica, it's those green caterpillars
00:25:16
that are going to chew holes in the leaves.
00:25:19
You're gonna see the cabbage moths or the cabbage butterflies
00:25:23
1st and then you will see the the cabbage worms and the
00:25:27
cabbage loopers. If you can exclude those moths
00:25:33
and butterflies to start with by using insect netting or row
00:25:36
covers, that will help, which is exactly what I did.
00:25:40
I actually started out with row covers early on to help kind of
00:25:44
keep the plants warm. Once we started to warm up a
00:25:47
little bit in the spring, I took those off and I covered them
00:25:50
with insect netting and everything stayed covered
00:25:53
completely with the insect netting basically until it
00:25:57
started to get too tall. Now with the Brussels sprouts,
00:25:59
they're starting to really push on the insect netting.
00:26:02
So I had to kind of move it or loosen it up.
00:26:05
And then I did start to see some of those moths and butterflies
00:26:07
come in. But the damage really hasn't
00:26:10
been bad at all. So I haven't had to use
00:26:13
anything. But you can use, you know,
00:26:16
biological controls like like BT or again, you can use
00:26:20
insecticidal soaps, that sort of thing.
00:26:22
The insect netting really is though a great way to help
00:26:27
protect your all of your brassicas from any one of the,
00:26:30
you know, insect pests that that you might face.
00:26:32
But usually for me, it is absolutely those cabbage
00:26:36
butterfly and the cabbage moths. One thing I've not had to deal
00:26:39
with, but it is fairly common with Brussels sprouts is cabbage
00:26:43
root maggots. So it's a white maggot larvae
00:26:47
and it tunnels in and it feeds on the roots of of the plant.
00:26:51
You won't even know what's happening.
00:26:52
You'll just start to see the plant begin to wilt early on
00:26:57
with really no reason why. I mean, if they're very well
00:26:59
watered and continue to root, you may have to check the roots
00:27:04
of the plant to see if that's what's going on because
00:27:06
eventually it's just going to kill off the plant.
00:27:08
Flea beetles. These are those small little
00:27:11
jumping beetles that create teeny tiny little holes in the
00:27:14
leaves. Again, the row covers or insect
00:27:16
netting is really good here and helps to keep those away.
00:27:21
Some people have had success using diatomaceous earth around
00:27:25
the base of their plants to help with flea beetles.
00:27:27
And then there's also Harlequin bugs.
00:27:29
These are shield shaped, so kind of similar to the shape of like
00:27:35
a a squash bug, but they suck the plant juices and that causes
00:27:39
wilting and it causes stunted growth and a lot of time you
00:27:42
just need to hand pick these again.
00:27:44
Those insect netting is going to help to prevent an initial
00:27:48
infestation and allow those plants to get to maturity much
00:27:51
more easily. In terms of diseases, you know,
00:27:55
the three things that are prevalent with most brassicas
00:27:58
are the same things that affect Brussels sprouts.
00:28:00
So downy mildew, it's that fungal disease that causes
00:28:03
yellow spots on the leaves with the fuzzy Gray underside.
00:28:07
If you can improve the air circulation, that helps, which
00:28:09
is why because it's been so rainy, I have made sure to
00:28:13
continue to pull the leaves off of the bottom of those plants to
00:28:17
help improve that air circulation.
00:28:19
You can use fungicidal sprays if you need to.
00:28:23
I have used first Saturday lime to sprinkle on it to help to dry
00:28:26
it out and adjust that that leaf pH, the surface pH to to help
00:28:31
keep the downy mildew at Bay. Black rot, this is a bacterial
00:28:35
disease that causes black lesions on the leaves and the
00:28:39
stems there as far as I know, really isn't any kind of a
00:28:43
prevention for this. It gets passed through the soil.
00:28:48
So if you've ever seen this in any of your brassicas, you need
00:28:51
to make sure that you're not planting brassicas in that same
00:28:53
spot for about 3 years. And then you can also choose
00:28:56
disease resistant varieties that that you can grow to help
00:29:00
prevent the spread of the black rot.
00:29:03
And then club root is also a soil borne disease.
00:29:06
This causes these swollen, distorted roots.
00:29:11
A lot of the time club root happens because the soil pH is
00:29:16
out of whack. So you can stick.
00:29:17
If you can get your soil to stay between that 6 and 7.5, then
00:29:21
that'll help. And then also you want to rotate
00:29:23
your crops regularly. OK, so once you get your
00:29:27
Brussels sprouts to maturity, then you have to figure out when
00:29:32
to harvest them. And this was the interesting
00:29:35
part for me because I wasn't quite sure when I was supposed
00:29:39
to start picking them. And I think it's because I had
00:29:42
seen the Brussels sprouts off the stock.
00:29:45
I've seen them in a bag or whatever in the grocery store
00:29:48
and then I had seen people cut the entire stock and sell them
00:29:53
in that manner. And I've never sort of seen the
00:29:56
in between stage. And so I sort of had to look up
00:29:59
what it was I was supposed to be doing, how I was supposed to be
00:30:01
doing it. When you were supposed to
00:30:03
harvest them. Because when we're looking at
00:30:06
cabbages, full-sized cabbages, you generally wait to harvest
00:30:11
them until they have started to fold their leaves in on
00:30:13
themselves and they are nice and firm.
00:30:17
And then basically whatever size you want them at, you can
00:30:19
harvest them whenever they're ready for Brussels sprouts.
00:30:22
They are ready to harvest when the sprouts, just like those big
00:30:25
cabbages, are firm. They are nice and green and
00:30:28
they're about one to two inches in diameter.
00:30:31
There are two different ways to do this.
00:30:33
So you can just let them grow, which is what I've done this
00:30:36
spring, and start harvesting from the bottom of the stalk
00:30:40
where the sprouts mature 1st and you just twist or cut the
00:30:44
sprouts off of the stalks. Now once you have done this, you
00:30:48
will notice as you look up the stalk that there are more teeny
00:30:52
tiny sprouts that are forming. So you can sort of have a
00:30:55
continuous harvest of these so long as the plant continues to
00:30:59
thrive happily in whatever the weather conditions are by
00:31:05
leaving the plant in the ground and just continuing to harvest
00:31:08
as the next set of sprouts are ready to harvest.
00:31:13
Now, if you want them to all mature at about the same time so
00:31:18
that you can harvest the entire stalk, then this takes some
00:31:21
forethought. Once the sprouts at the bottom
00:31:24
begin to form, you want to bend over the top of the stalk so it
00:31:29
kind of looks similar to what our onion plants look like when
00:31:33
they reach maturity and they the top sort of flop over.
00:31:36
You're wanting to sort of pinch the top down of the plant so it
00:31:41
stops the growth. This is going to stop the top
00:31:46
growth of the plant and it's going to force the energy into
00:31:49
the maturing the sprouts that have already started to form.
00:31:53
And so they're going to grow more uniformly in rates.
00:31:56
And then once they're all at that one to two inch diameter,
00:32:00
you can cut the entire stock and bring it in, or you can just
00:32:04
harvest all the heads individually.
00:32:06
So this is likely the technique that I'm going to be using for
00:32:10
the fall harvest since I'll want them to all be about the same
00:32:15
size for holiday meals versus the spring crop that I've just
00:32:20
continued to harvest from as they've come ready.
00:32:22
But I may also leave a few of them to continue to grow to see
00:32:26
just how long I can continue to harvest from them as the weather
00:32:31
gets colder and the day length gets shorter.
00:32:34
I mean, everything is an experiment in the garden, right?
00:32:38
The cool thing about Brussels sprouts is just like our other
00:32:40
brassicas, after you get that first frost, the flavor of the
00:32:45
Brussels sprouts is going to improve.
00:32:47
It's going to become sweeter. Those starches in the plants are
00:32:50
converted to sugars in the cold. So you can continue to harvest
00:32:55
off of that plant if you don't choose to pinch that top.
00:32:59
And at least until the sprouts start to become soft or the
00:33:03
plant finally succumbs to, you know, your weather.
00:33:06
If you have very cold weather and then once you have harvested
00:33:10
them, you can store your sprouts in the refrigerator in a
00:33:14
perforated plastic bag for like 3 to four weeks.
00:33:19
They store very, very well. If you need to store them longer
00:33:23
than that, then you can freeze them.
00:33:24
You want to blanch them in boiling water for about 3 to 5
00:33:27
minutes and then plunge them into ice water to cool, drain
00:33:30
them and then just freeze them either in some sort of airtight
00:33:34
container or in a freezer bag and frozen.
00:33:37
Brussels sprouts can be stored in the freezer for up to a year.
00:33:46
That's Brussels sprouts. I really do think growing these
00:33:51
is just like any other Brassica. It's all about the timing and
00:33:55
the temperature, and I think the soil moisture really does kind
00:33:59
of kick in as a little bonus thing there.
00:34:02
So if you're somewhere where cool weather is the predominant
00:34:06
season, then you likely will have easy success with Brussels
00:34:10
sprouts. If you're somewhere like me,
00:34:12
where cool weather is a total crapshoot, it will absolutely be
00:34:16
hit or miss. I got lucky this year with the
00:34:18
cooler temperatures for longer into the spring and the lovely
00:34:21
rain that we've had. But it taught me what I need to
00:34:26
look for in the fall, for growing these guys, and for
00:34:30
trying again next spring. Hopefully it helped you figure
00:34:33
it out, too. Until next time, my gardening
00:34:36
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
00:34:38
talk again soon. Thanks for listening to another
00:34:42
episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.
00:34:44
For more information about today's topic and to find all
00:34:47
the ways you can get in touch with me or support the show, go
00:34:50
to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com. Until next time, my gardening
00:34:53
friends, keep learning and keep growing.