Simple care for broccoli and brussel sprouts

[dubele]

I planted 4 each of broccoli and brussel sprouts. They look great. I've done a little reading on the web and I think I am to do nothing with them at this point....but wanted verification. I planted 4 weeks ago and they are both around 6" - 8" tall. I read somewhere that I should remove leaves...not sure when.

Can someone please give me a short plan on how to care for these 2 vegetables?

Thanks,
Doug

[rainbowgardener]

I've never grown brussels sprouts, but I grow broccoli. I don't do anything to it, don't remove leaves (though something, I think probably my resident groundhog did a good job of removing the leaves for me on a couple of them ). Just harvest the main head when it gets big enough and then let it keep growing for awhile, it will produce smaller side heads.

You can eat the broccoli leaves though as a green, like cabbage.

[Dillbert]

both are reasonable easy to care for - the usual water and side dressing will keep them happy. mulch heavily around the root system - they like a cool soil.

things to watch for:
broccoli - cabbage worms like broccoli - if you see small white butterflies, you'll likely have the worms. a physical barrier (like a floating row cover - spun bond polyester) works, but not 100%. if you get cabbage worms, hand picking is pretty easy in the cool hours. after harvesting the crowns, soak in salt water for a few minutes to make them exit.

brusselsprouts are prone to aphid infestations - catch this early because once the aphids get into the sprout leaves you can lose alot of the crop - cabbage worms also like them - the damage is easy to spot - they eat everything tender on the plant... water hose blast off the ahpids and hand pick any worms.

[dubele]

Thanks for the replies.

Dillbert,

How do you combat aphids? For fun, I planted a brussel sprouts plant in a pot 3 years ago....I remember having green worms about 1/2" to 3/4" long....they inundated the plants and it killed them. I guess these would be cabbage worms? How do you combat these?

P.S. - I already have some holes in my broccoli and brussel sprout leaves.

Thanks,
Doug

[DoubleDogFarm]

Doug,

Sorry to be a buttdinski, but did you read Dillbert's posting, or are you just trying to be funny.

[dubele]

Yes DoubleDogFarm, I saw it....I was looking for a little more insight....is there something more effective than just picking and hosing down pests?

Thanks,
Doug

[rainbowgardener]

No, that is the most effective thing you can do. Really, I'm not being sarcastic.

That and make sure your garden has plenty of birds, ladybugs, praying mantises, etc.

[DoubleDogFarm]

There are Safer Soaps for aphids. Aphids are difficult to deal with, they have 7 generations of pregnant generations inside.

They are born pregnant and six generations back.

[scot29]

After spraying the aphids off, do they come right back?

[rainbowgardener]

After spraying the aphids off, do they come right back?

not real soon, in my experience. I have a honeysuckle trumpet vine that gets covered in aphids every spring. I go over it with kleenex, squishing them (maybe different than spraying?) and that's it for the year. There may be a few aphids after that, but it does not get covered with them again.

"Aphids are difficult to deal with, they have 7 generations of pregnant generations inside. " Citation for that?

Aphids are pretty remarkable creatures, well adapted for fast reproduction. During the season they mostly reproduce parthenogenetically -- females producing more females without the intervention of any males, a kind of natural cloning. According to wiki:

Some aphids have telescoping generations. That is, the parthenogenetic, viviparous [giving birth to live young] female has a daughter within her, who is already parthenogenetically producing her own daughter. Thus a female's diet can affect the body size and birth rate of more than two generations (daughters and granddaughters). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid

So I'll give you the daughters and granddaughters. I'm thinking any more than that may be an exaggeration.

[DoubleDogFarm]

This is what happens when you pass along information without looking it up yourself.

I stand corrected. 3 Generation Grandmother, mother, daughter.

It's like gardening tecniques, I do it this way because my father and his father did it this way. Break the cycle.

[Greywolf]

I also am trying Brussels Sprouts for the first time this year - do you think that "ANT DESTROYER TEA" (Red pepper, black pepper, and Cinnamon) will retard the aphids any?

I have a bad black ant problem that I am addressing with past years pepper pods steeped in water.

~Dutch