Friday 26 February 2016

The end of the Brussels Sprouts

The Brussels Sprouts have finally come to the end of their useful life.




The only real sprouts left were a few right at the top of the "Cromwell" plant:





Almost all of the sprouts from the other three plants had been used, but some of the ones that had been left behind because they had split had opened out into what were effectively miniature cabbages.




So, I picked everything useable before pulling up the plants and composting the stalks. There were just a few very small sprouts:



One of the Tops was OK, but the other was riddled with Whitefly, so I discarded it:



I kept the cabbagey "blown" sprouts though.




With some careful preparation, there is enough "Greens" here for at least one decent meal for the two of us.


I haven't yet decided whether I'm going to grow Brussels Sprouts again this year, but if I do, I think I must get hold of some ultra-fine Enviromesh, because the Whitefly infestations are just too much of a nuisance, and they reduce the amount of harvestable material.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, that's too bad about the whitefly - brassicas always seem to be such a pest magnet.

    Last year there was a never ending parade of sprouts heading towards your kitchen, but not so much this time round. I recall that you changed the spacing and/or # of plants in the bed...have you been able to determine if this made a difference one way or another?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Whitefly was bad this year, and I think the overall yield was down. I don't think the spacing made any significant difference.

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