Topic: What's happening to Brussels?

[fitzsie]

I've grown my first brussels from seed and thought they were doing so well until they got hit with cabbage root fly. Lost two plants but three of them were hanging in and continued to grow albeit slowly. Just been out to see them this evening and had to pick off about half a dozen small green caterpillers and on top of that it looks like the tops of the bussels are covered in some sort of mold which looks like ash ?   AArrrhhh!!!   Someone out there hates my brussels.   Can I do anything or should I just give up on them now ?

Just had a quick google and i think it might be mealy cabbage aphid. Not sure if it is worth trying to save the plants or not as they are really infested. Been working these past three days and with this warm humid weather  we have had it must have been ideal growing conditions for them. First year and so far having more failures then successes.
Having a dip on that rollercoaster.........

[antipodes]

I got this last year, after a while the aphids mysteriously disappeared (either frozen off or devoured methinks). And the sprouts were fine.
Try washing them off with soapy water, it's gross and you might want to wear gloves...

[Digeroo]

For me the caterpillars prefer the purple sprouting so tend to leave the sprouts alone.

I have had clouds of the white flies.  Yuk.  Luckily do not seem to be doing anything bad to the centres of the sprouts so it will just mean scrapping a few more outside leaves. 

Gardening is always something of a roller coaster for me.   I am heavy on the feeding it does not stop the beasties I think it makes the plant tolerate their attack better. 

[bionear2]

My sprouts were suddenly attacked by mass colonies of grey cabbage aphids, to add to the squadrons of resident whitefly.
I stripped off all leaves except the outer leaves of the top "cabbage", and removed the cabbage centre, then used a hose jet to thoroughly wash down the plants, followed by a feed with a pure nitrogen fertiliser. They now look clean and decent, and the sprouts are starting to grow again.
The odd colony of aphids, and any caterpillars get a quick squib with a pyrethrum spray.

[kt.]

The attack of grey aphids was previously common for my sprouts but this has been my first aphid free year.  I gave the plants more space between each.  As the leaves are yellowing on the plant, I have removed them to the compost bin and not left them to rot on the ground around the plant.  My Maximus are the size of golf balls and we have had 3 pickings since 31 August.  My Trafalgar F1 late variety are doing well too.

[peterbld]

Tried to grow some sprouts this year on a small area just to test how well they would grow, but without any success. Had a lot of problems with birds the last season tho...

[gwynnethmary]

This is our second year, and the sprouts seem much happier this time around-most are still under netting, which I think has made a big difference.