Topic: Sprouting - the usual collapse!

[tim]

OK, you bright ones - why?

The tops are so heavy I'm amazed that any stay upright. Is it just that the soil was not firmed before planting? - Tim

[tim]

PS - note the rogue plant in the foreground - very pretty! - Tim

[john_miller]

If you are meaning what I think you mean Tim, this is due to the poor root system that brassicas produce (which makes for easy harvesting of swedes though!).  They are simply top heavy. There really is no way around it except by breeding. The technical name for this phemomenon is 'lodging'. Lodging was one of the driving forces behind the development of F1 hybrid Brussels sprouts as plants falling every which way were impossible to harvest mechanically. I think I was reading somewhere recently that there is a renewed interest in the sprouting broccolis so who knows what may happen?
Any chance of a close up of the rogue? It really does look attractive.
More of a ripple than a tsunami I hope?

[tim]

- my pleasure, Sir. Taken before they started to topple.

Thanks for the comfort. But it makes them b--y difficult to pick! -  Tim

9/11 - Oh!, stop messing about - where's that picture gone?? The URL is still in the draft message. I know how Ina feels now! Is it because I've been fiddling with the icon? - Tim

[john_miller]

After two power cuts third time lucky? Dragging up memories from college of traditional Brussels sprout production:- This involved sowing the seed in a seedbed and pulling the seedlings when they were ready to transplant. The taproot was then sliced through and most of the leaves were cut off too, to reduce stress. Significantly for you Tim, hopefully, this encouraged the plant to produce a more fibrous root system better able to stand wind. This was in the days before F1 hybrids and modules. If you grow your broccoli seedlings in modules you could try washing off the soil of a few and trimming the tap root prior to planting. Perhaps next year do a few and see what happens?
Thanks for the picture, could be a significant feature in a large mixed planter? Is it a chimera or genetic?
Sir? Who? Me?

[tim]

- yes, Sir - amazing what some folk know!! - Tim

11/7/03
Just re-read that John - yes, they were in modules and did not have their taproots severed, as would normally happen when you pull them. Thanks - Tim

[Palefire]

This was my first year for sprouts and they were all determined to fall over, despite efforts at tying them on to canes (lots of canes per plant I might add). Those that I managed to restrain a bit had nice, tight sprouts :), but those that fell about had big cabbage like affairs growing everywhere :(. When I pulled some of them up last weekend, I would swear each plant weighed somewhere in the region of 20 lbs - shame it wasn't all in sprouts :-/!!! I do remember walking past an allotment in Kendal a few years ago, where there were sprout plants standing as upright as soldiers, though, with lots of sprouts up each stem.

Love, Palefire

xxx