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Brussell sprout newbie advice
Sam50
Posts: 55
in Fruit & veg
I am a newbie veg gardener, have started brussell sprouts from seed they have grown to about 7cm.
Can anyone give me advice on how to grow these further successfully please.
Thank you
0
Posts
Thank you for your informative response. Really helpful appreciate it.
I have them planted in pots atm.
I planted my sprouts out and three were eaten I think as suddenly had disappeared ?
Probably slugs or woodpigeons. I have to net all my young brassicas or the pigeons would eat the lot in minutes!
I have grown Brussels sprouts and many other brassicas on & off for more than 50 years. The advice given by scroggin above is very sound. Yes, firm ground and press the soil around the stem & downward when planting out, then water well (about 5 litres per plant). I planted some of mine out about a month ago and they were slow to get going so I went to my shed and took out some Epsom Salts and put a little around each plant and raked it in with a small hand fork taking care not to leave the salts touching the plant stems. Gave them all another good drink and the effect is amazing - they are now growing rapidly and look incredibly healthy having quadrupled in size.
Pigeons and sparrows are the biggest problem for me (apart from the dreaded cabbage white butterfly) so I have invested in a professional netting system from Knowle Nets in Dorset with 7mm mesh nets covering the raised bed to 2 metres high that the brassicas are in this year.
How long should i aim to keep these covered to prevent the birds attacking them
When the plants reach 30cms (12") high I doubt the birds will be so interested as they like the fresh young shoots - but the the cabbage white butterfly will be all over them laying eggs on the underside of the leaves. These will develop into voracious caterpillars that can devastate the entire crop. I hate using chemicals to kill the caterpillars as the sprays can be extremely harmful to other beneficial creatures plus I like to know exactly what I am feeding my family. That is why I have invested in a butterfly proof netting & cage for my brassica plot - I have 3 identical size raised beds about 3 x 1.2 mts so I can easily move the cage for crop rotation. The cages are not cheap however but I have learned that hand picking caterpillars is laborious and relatively ineffective because of the perpetual onslaught of the butterflies right into autumn and the resultant damage to crops is so dispiriting.