Topic: Sprouts aren't forming buttons?

[gray1720]

My sprouts thus far have formed a lot of loose-set florets like flower sprouts, with no sign of hard buttons forming. Apart from earliness, my other brassicas grown alongside have behaved themselves (got some red cabbage hearts  already that I reckon I could stand on!, and I usually struggle with reds), so I'm at a loss. I expect I can treat them as flower sprouts, but winter won't be the same without weapons-grade sprouts.

Any ideas what's wrong? Soil was well dug, having been rested for a year under black sheet, and manured. Usually grows decent brasicas without too much intervention, and this is the first year bar one (when I didn't realise I hadn't sown any until too late) that I've had a sprout failure.

Adrian

[Tee Gee]

Soil was well dug

How soon did you plant out after digging?

Where sprouts are concerned I did my digging in autumn and planting out in late spring. I found that this compacted the ground to a state that sprouts like. I have known of others treading them in after planting out, I never liked this method!

My motto was " firm ground= firm sprouts"

[ancellsfarmer]

My sprouts thus far have formed a lot of loose-set florets like flower sprouts, with no sign of hard buttons forming. Apart from earliness, my other brassicas grown alongside have behaved themselves (got some red cabbage hearts  already that I reckon I could stand on!, and I usually struggle with reds), so I'm at a loss. I expect I can treat them as flower sprouts, but winter won't be the same without weapons-grade sprouts.

Any ideas what's wrong? Soil was well dug, having been rested for a year under black sheet, and manured. Usually grows decent brasicas without too much intervention, and this is the first year bar one (when I didn't realise I hadn't sown any until too late) that I've had a sprout failure.

Adrian

Its all due to Brexit

[Tee Gee]

Like it Vin! But  the leaves of his sprouts have come out rather than remaining in!

[Beersmith]

I wonder if it could be the seeds?

Over the years I have occasionally bought seeds that were obviously not as described. I can bring to mind Gardener's delight tomatoes that were about four inches in diameter, yellow chard that were pure white, and quite recently Inca berries that instead of being normal size grew to only about 15 inches with tiny lanterns to match.  Might even be an F1 where the cross fertilisation didn't work properly.

May not be anything related to your efforts.

[ancellsfarmer]

Recalling the fuss from previous attempts to ridicule our political masters, these troublesome , time consuming wastes of space, henceforth are to be called Gennefera, which to produce the ubiquitous wee buttons of dubious satisfaction, that can be bought off as complete stems for ridiculously small amounts of cash, having been sprayed by commercial growers every ten days with biocide and/or fungicide for 24 weeks from mid summer, just to be present as a supporting cast to the annual turkey, may not be included in next years planting roster at all . More curly kale in prospect!

[gray1720]

Aside from someone who appears to have been on the cabbage wine, some interesting points there. I'm fairly certain that the ground had several months to settle, as I got practically the lot dug by he end of November (even if my bac felt like a 90 year-olds by the end), and I gave the plants a good stamping in too.

I wonder if it is the seed, especially as I had a back of dwarf borlotto a couple of years ago that turned out to be climbers.

Adrian