Brassicas
Brussels sprouts
Pick bottom up; frost sweetens.
- Indoors
- 4 to 6 wk spring, or mid Jun for fall
- Outside
- Transplant
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground (stake)
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July; fall sprouts ride on it
- Harvest
- Oct to Dec after frost
Care
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days through July and August, every 5 to 7 as fall cools. A long soak at the base until the top few inches are wet, then let it dry before the next. Never let it run dry; loose, bitter sprouts trace back to a summer that swung.
- Sow
- Four to six weeks before the July transplant, start cells in mid June: 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, keep the stronger. Set plants eighteen inches to two feet apart in the bed, each with a stake.
- Start inside
- No heat mat; at room temperature they sprout in 1 to 2 weeks. Under the lights as they break ground, 14 to 16 hours. Set out in July for the long fall run; started earlier, they size up warm and taste of it.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at planting starts the bed. A heavy feeder on a long season, so side-dress with Garden-tone, up to a third cup a plant, once it is four inches tall, then stop feeding by midsummer so the plant toughens for frost.
- Ready
- Work from the bottom of the stalk upward as each sprout firms to about an inch, snapping off the leaf beneath it first. Frost sweetens them, so start after the first cold and run into December.
- Trouble
- Cabbage aphids in gray crowds down in the sprouts: blast with water early, check weekly from September. Cabbageworms on the leaves all summer: net the young plants. A leaning stalk: stake it against the wind.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 10–15 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in July and August; even a big bag dries far faster than a bed. 60 to 90 sec on the shower dial until it runs from the seams.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- One plant per bag, in the biggest, sturdiest one you have.
The last harvest standing: Brussels sprouts picked from October into December, sweeter after every frost. A mid June sowing is the whole trick; started too early, they size up in warm weather and taste like it.
Growing
Sow indoors in mid June, four to six weeks ahead of a July transplant, and let the long fall run to October build the sprouts. Give each plant bed space and a stake, or a large sturdy bag, because a loaded three-foot stalk catches November wind like a sail. Feed at planting and once as it establishes, then keep the nitrogen off through late summer so it hardens before frost; it is a long season with a big plant at the end of it. Snap off lower leaves as sprouts form and pick from the bottom up as they firm to an inch. Leave the stalks standing into December; snow on the plant is storage, not a problem. Water the whole season through without slacking; sprouts that fatten in October are built on moisture the plant banked in August.
Varieties
Diablo and Hestia size up reliably in a Hudson Valley fall; Long Island Improved is the region's own heirloom for the patient.
Pests
Cabbage aphids are the particular menace, colonizing the sprouts themselves in gray crowds; blast them with water early and keep checking weekly from September. The usual cabbageworms chew leaves all summer, and netting the young plants keeps both problems from settling in. Frost ends the insect season entirely, one more argument for the late harvest.
In the kitchen
Halved and roasted hard, or shaved raw with lemon and pecorino. A whole December stalk hauled inside makes the point better than any seed catalog.