Sprouts

Hi.. I would love to have another go at growing sprouts..I had a go a couple of years ago but they turned out like little cabbages. A friend gave me some of his and they were delicious BUT he is not too willing to part with the secrets.
So best cropper..best taste..and tips for growing PLEEEEEESE,then maybe I can give his some of mine BUT keep MY secrets..serves him right!! :D

 

I tried growing sprouts last year just ended up with a catapiller farm.

 

I tried sprouts last yr but didn`t do very well either.I got a few but not many.Anyway...
The advice i was given is to give them plenty of room.I made the mistake of mixing the brassicas at the seedling stage,so when it came to planting out, i had maybe 2 sprout,3 cabbage 2 broccoli,etc..I know they should be grown together if pos but you should have your sprouts preferably in a row of their own.
The other thing is to firm them in.Carefully walk around each plant so they are tight in the ground.Apparently they like it.

 

Mmmmmmmmmmm Waitrose maybe??

 

The caterpillars ate mine here too. I didn't even get a decent plant! I was so disappointed I didn't even do my sugar snap peas! :(

Waitrose sounds like a good idea!

 

This year i`ll be buying mine from the market van that comes around the village every sunday morning. :D

 

My sprouts have grown quite well, though the sprouts themselves have been smaller than I would have hoped. They are now starting to flower so this weekend I'm going to chop off all the remaining sprouts, shoots and the top leaves and blanch and freeze them. The flowering bits I'm going to treat the same as purple sprouting broccoli...it looks very similar. I'm not sure whether I'll be growing them again, the battle with the caterpillars was pretty horrendous last summer with the final outcome being a draw. The caterpillars won the battle of the cauliflowers but I won the battle of the sprouts. Tonight however my mother has told me she has planted the remaining brassica seeds from last years seed batch. Unfortunately the packets got mixed up and we don't know whether the seeds she has planted are cauli's or sprouts. Whatever, I think I will have to devise some form of netting to keep the butterflies off.

 

Thanks you have convinced me that growing sprouts is not such a good idea..and yes it bought to mind the problems with butterflies and caterpillars. As I live in an area where we have lots of fresh greengrocer shops...thats were I will go...let them take the strain!!

 

That's the beauty of living in the Vale...Lovely fresh veg !!

 

I planted some sprout seeds on Monday and they are up already. Had about 13 through yesterday evening and counted 25 today. Getting a little worried that they may look like baby cabbages when they are grown :(