Best brussel sprouts

[catjac1975]

I have always used BT for the loopers with great success. How is Boron added organically? Trace element, right?

 

[Hal]

Yes Boron is a trace element. I normally use borax which occurs naturally I think it was a result of seasonal lakes evaporating much like gypsum here in Australia. Sorry I can't be of much more help that that.

 

[majorcatfish]

cat to answer your question, years ago we tried a couple times growing sprouts in the soil<Carolina clay> with not much luck either. sorriest looking things you ever did see think i just mowed them over and never gave a second thought about growing them again till this year when getting into raised bed gardening. Figured for laughs and giggles give them a try again..

wow what a difference...

Brussels sprouts are in the cabbage family and they are heavy feeders not much in nitrogen, but they need higher amounts in phosphate and potash, plus they have a extensive root system, so side dressing feeding should be re-thinked...go wider and feed them every 4 weeks.

What I can recommend is next spring where you are going to plant your Brussels sprouts on top of a complete fertilizer add a little extra listed below and work it in.
triple super phosphate 0-45-0
muriate of potash 0-0-60 <easy on this>
Greensand 0-0-3 key amendment that should be added everywhere in the garden... has 32 over important trace elements. Here is 16 of those trace elements, for some reason I cannot find any mention of the other 16 elements….
Barium
Boron
Chromium
Cobalt
Copper
Lithium
Manganese
Molybdenum
Nickel
Rubidium
Sodium
Tin
Titanium
Vanadium
Zinc
Zirconium

heres some good reading on greensand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensand

Highly recommend adding this to everyone’s garden soil every couple years...

here is a link where to buy greensand in large bags.. 36Lbs just enter your zip code...
http://www.espoma.com/p_consumer/find_dealer.cfm


You should have your soil tested at least every other year, some state cooperative extensions do it free
or for a small fee, it’s worthwhile to see the results before adding .

for varieties ....
the further north you go, you should get a shorter maturely date variety, so you can get a good frost on them.
we did the cumulus type this year had a extreme in size differences from marble to 2”.

You might try growing these....
Capitola 115-120 days < theses are one you see in the store mostly>
Gustus 117-130 days<northeast states>
Cumulus 148-155 days<southern states>
Did see in one of my catalogs a purple type, just might add that to next year’s garden line up.

Once the weather starts to change you want to top them, this will re direct the plants energy
To the sprouts. After a couple hard frosts or once the leafs get frost bit and welt time to harvest.

here is a picture from mid october after i topped them and snapped off the lower leafs.
you can see near the bottom of the stalks that some have opened up, i just cut them off.
plus you can see that they are crowded the ones in the middle barely have any sprouts<rookie mistake in a raised bed>


and cat you asked about this picture in another post if that's where they grew....no
the one in the middle must have been challenged...

 

[catjac1975]

Great reply! Now to the web master. Is there a way to book mark this to find again later in the year???

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

ones i've tried growing here in NH in past years were Jade Cross, Half Dwarf, Catskill, Long Island Improved, Falstaff. only the Jade Cross produced sprouts for me and i think it was because i well fertilized the area with a coop clean out mid/late winter that year. this past year i did the last 3 varieties and i didn't fertilize the ground before starting that new bed.

Ridge, thanks for that link! i had heard of greensand before but hadn't checked locally for vendors. lucky i can get it at my local feed store.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ridge, thanks for that link! i had heard of greensand before but hadn't checked locally for vendors. lucky i can get it at my local feed store.

That wasn't me, it was Cat.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

heh, sorry. it was Major that recommended it! i had to go to one of my favorite greenhouses today and i happen to find they carried smaller bags of it.

dh was with me and he kept saying he would get it for me as a gift. i think this is the first year in 10 years of being with him that he has actually realized that gifts to me should involve one of my hobbies-chickens, gardening or crafts, and not just something he wants and thinks i'll like too. (last year's gift was a printer i didn't need another one.) i've always told him i like practical gifts and not things that become dust collectors. could this be a side affect of his stroke from last January? he seems to finally be listening to most of what i say! if it is a side affect i think i like it!

 

[majorcatfish]

we had some of the sprouts from the freezer last night oh my oh my those were good...
if you have room in your gardens you need to grow enough of them so you can have a taste of their goodness throughout the winter....
oh yes there is going a larger space dedicated to them this year.....

TIC TOC TIC TOC..... ONLY A COUPLE MORE MONTHS TILL SPRING

 

[ninnymary]

Oh Major, I love brussel sprouts. Now where can I squeese some in? No where....

Mary

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

heh, and here i thought Catskill was its own variety, now i'm finding out it is really Long Island Improved just with a different name!