Topic: Strange sprouts!

[knbsallotment]

Could anybody tell me why my sprouts didn't produce nice firm sprouts? Instead, they were all loose and flowery almost, with no hearts, just a random collection of loose leaves!

[saddad]

The description is "blown" usually associated with not being firmly enough planted but wind rock will give the same result...
 ;D

[OllieC]

Yup, you have a blow-out in the sprout department. 'round here, even the "old" pro's have struggled with sprouts this year - they were tiny & v. poor yield. An F1 variety rather than an "old favourite" massively increases your chances, as does steaking & keeping the soil firm.

[redimp]

Too much nitrogen also causes blown sprouts.  Mine were planted half in and half out of the previous years runner bean trench - all the ones in the trench blew, all the ones not were OK.

[knbsallotment]

Am glad I'm not the only one! Never had a problem in past seasons, but this year was a nightmare! Thanks for the advice. I'll have to be extra careful with this seasons crop!

[cambourne7]

i planted 4 sprout seedlings and not one produced any fruit in fact it looked like it had just grown like rocket!

i know they were sprouts and the person who gave me left over seedlings had a small crop from theres.

I pulled the whole thing up a couple of weeks ago which was very satifying

[knbsallotment]

Yep, I have now pulled all mine out too. Mine grew lovely straight stalks, and looked like they were starting to produce nice little sprouts, then went mad and grew loads of loose leaves instead! It was so very annoying!

[Robert_Brenchley]

If you're into stirfries you can still use them for that.

[Barnowl]

Too much nitrogen also causes blown sprouts.  Mine were planted half in and half out of the previous years runner bean trench - all the ones in the trench blew, all the ones not were OK.

Now I'm really confused - I thought brassicas were meant to follow legumes ???

Bob Flowerdew..
"# Brassicas like lime but potatoes don't like lime, so it makes a lot of sense to have them well apart in the rotation. Peas and beans also like lime, so it's common to add the lime when you have peas and beans. That leaves the soil rich, so then you plant your brassicas.
# After the brassicas the soil is quite firm, which is good for the onions. You don't even have to dig the soil, you can just put the onions where the brassicas were.
# After the onions, carrots come rather well. Because carrots are a root vegetable you break the soil up getting them out, which leaves the soil in lovely condition for planting potatoes!
# The potatoes take a lot of goodness out of the soil, so I earth them up with grass clippings, which increases the humus content. At that point it's good to add lime so it's time for the peas and beans to come back again! "

[Tee Gee]

Strange how we all tend to look at things a bit differently but then again gardening is not an exact science.

I am basically the same as Barnowl but for different reasons.

In an ideal world I would think of things this way;

Take rotation of say one bed I would do this;

Note; this is a bit of the chicken & egg situation because; 'what is the start of the cycle?

I will start in year one with potatoes which will have had loads of manure dug in and no lime added.

Year two; I will go for brassicas and add lime at planting out time as I have mentioned in other threads, and as the manure was added the previous year there will be no reaction between them both.

Year three; Roots & salads because the pH is generally about right the manure has rotted away.

Year 4 =Year one unless you are using a four year rotation then I would grow legumes.(then year 5 =year1)

Now for the reality; this does not always work simply beacause of the imbalance between Roots/brassicas/legumes etc. i.e. brassicas generally take up more space so therfore encroach on areas that knock rotation plans out of the window.

To overcome this I plan my thirty foot long beds in a manner that allows me to change if needs be, i.e. I can use one half of a bed  for one crop family and the other half for another family.

This has been made easier in recent years simply because I can use a spread sheet on my PC to record such variations.

Phew!! who said gardening was relaxing ? ;)

Edit; Got carried away and went off thread a bit; this is how my sprouts looked in November there are still a few left. http://tinyurl.com/yv7yqm

I put it down to variety and quite a bit of trial & error until you can get a variety that suits your ground, these are Maximus. I also tied Marshalls trial packet of 'United' and they blew two years on the trot, Cascade were slightly better but not as good as Maximus.

[Mrs Ava]

I quite like blown sprouts, like little mini spring greens.  ;D

[redimp]

Too much nitrogen also causes blown sprouts.  Mine were planted half in and half out of the previous years runner bean trench - all the ones in the trench blew, all the ones not were OK.

Now I'm really confused - I thought brassicas were meant to follow legumes ???

Bob Flowerdew..
"# Brassicas like lime but potatoes don't like lime, so it makes a lot of sense to have them well apart in the rotation. Peas and beans also like lime, so it's common to add the lime when you have peas and beans. That leaves the soil rich, so then you plant your brassicas.
# After the brassicas the soil is quite firm, which is good for the onions. You don't even have to dig the soil, you can just put the onions where the brassicas were.
# After the onions, carrots come rather well. Because carrots are a root vegetable you break the soil up getting them out, which leaves the soil in lovely condition for planting potatoes!
# The potatoes take a lot of goodness out of the soil, so I earth them up with grass clippings, which increases the humus content. At that point it's good to add lime so it's time for the peas and beans to come back again! "

They are and they do in my rotation but nitrogen outs in lots of soft leafy matter - perfect for cabbages etc.  Sprouts need to be grown a bit hard so they don't grow too much 'soft' leafy matter i.e. blown.  PSB should also be grown a little hard as too soft they won't overwinter as well - tis the same for overwintering caulis.  I will be planting next years sprouts in the paths between my bean beds. :)