Brussell sprout question- a dumb one I'm afraid but it's my first successful yr

[GrannieAnnie]

Picked our first sprouts today. I thought the biggest sprouts would be at the bottom of the stalk since I've read one is supposedto harvest the lowest first. But no, there were HUGE ones in the upper 1/5 of the stalk, maybe 3 times the size of the lowest ones. What gives?

(I didn't clip off the top of the stalk earlier, just let it grow to see how tall it would get.)

[GrannieAnnie]

[Digeroo]

I'm still waiting for that first frost.  We had a bit of a nip the other night but not sure its quite enough for the sprouts.  Killed a few beans.

[grawrc]

I don't know why the top ones are bigger but they mature from the bottom up so that's why you pick them that way. The aim of cutting off the top is to get them to mature faster which is a bit counterproductive since they taste better after frost so might as well wait for that!

[earlypea]

The open pollinated sprouts are supposed to swell and be harvested from bottom upwards, but F1s/hybrids' sprouts should all grow evenly for ease of industrial harvesting so if they're the latter I think you could pick from the top or the bottom or all at once - no matter.

[saddad]

Did you have more rain later on? That can give small sprouts at the bottom and larger ones higher up..  :-\

[GrannieAnnie]

We didn't have a dry summer so I've lost track of the watering. We have had a cold snap and John Miller said it was probably vernalised- a new word for me- when the plant gets confused by changing temps and begins flowering higher up where the temps are cooler.  That would explain it