Brussels Sprouts - letting some light in

Whilst undoubtedly healthy, my Brussels Sprouts were beginning to look a bit too luxuriant. I didn't want all their energy to go into leaves at the expense of sprouts, so I have given them a trim.

You may remember that I have six plants on the go, two each of three different types. In this next photo you can see that the shape of the three types is very different.

My view was that if I removed some of the lower leaves, not only would the plants put more energy into the formation of sprouts, but also the sprouts would benefit from a greater level of light, and air circulation - as indeed would the Endives underplanted beneath them.

This is "Before".

"Brilliant"

And this is "After".

"Brilliant"

The three varieties are developing at different rates, which is just what I wanted. The plan is to have Brussels Sprouts available for picking over a nice long period. You can see that the sprouts on "Brilliant" (photo above) are further advanced than those on the "Napoleon", below:

"Napoleon"

"Napoleon" is a tall variety and it is producing a lot of sprouts!

"Napoleon"

 

This variety is "Bosworth", whose sprouts are still very tiny:

 

"Bosworth"

This is how the bed looks now. 

 



Incidentally, I plan to remove the net in a few weeks' time, to further improve airflow and thus reduce the risk of fungal infections, but there are still plenty of white butterflies about so I'm not doing it just yet!