Is this a Brussels Sprout plant? [No! It's my Pet Weed!]

[TheWaterbug]

Hmm. What is this?
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/BrusselsSproutQuestionMark_web.jpg[/img]

I thought it was a Brussels sprout plant, but it doesn't really look like what I see on the Internet, and my plant is now more than 4 feet tall, and most descriptions of Brussels sprouts have them growing up to ~3 feet.

This one isn't exactly a volunteer, but it's growing a few feet away from where I sowed Brussels seeds back in May. All my other seedling failed, probably because the slugs ate 'em, but this one popped up a few weeks later, and it's been growing strongly every since.

I just hope I haven't been tending some sort of giant weed all this time!

[Bobberman]

NO! They look just like broccoli leaves growing tall with small bumps under the bottom leaves! That looks like a weed to me! Brussel sprouts usually has only one main stem!

[TheWaterbug]

NO! They look just like broccoli leaves growing tall with small bumps under the bottom leaves! That looks like a weed to me!

Hmm. It's a very well-cared-for weed, then. I've been "weeding" around it and it's on a drip watering system.

It's very healthy

I wonder what it is? The main stem is well over an inch thick now.

[PunkRotten]

MIght be a tree. My neighbors have this weed plant that is like 10 feet tall.

[Bobberman]

My brother planted flowers and had about 6 of the same thing with the long leave. Je thought they were flowers and I told him it was a common weed. He grew them most of the summer and finally is daughter pulled them as weeds! Someone here will know what weed it is!

[TheWaterbug]

*sigh* The healthiest plant in my entire garden is a weed.

Here's more detail of my "pet weed's" basic stem structure:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/PetWeed2_web.jpg[/img]

and of the leaves:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/PetWeed1_web.jpg[/img]

Even if it's a true weed, I'm not sure I have the heart to pull it after tending it for this long!

Now you know why I could never raise rabbits or ducks for food!

[rainbowgardener]

*sigh* The healthiest plant in my entire garden is a weed.

That is usually true!

[DoubleDogFarm]

Now you know why I could never raise rabbits or ducks for food!

Hey, Did I just get flamed?
Funny you chose these as an example. There are probably more chicken and turkey eaten than rabbit and duck.

If one eats meat, one should know where and how it was raised.

Eric

[TheWaterbug]

Now you know why I could never raise rabbits or ducks for food!

Hey, Did I just get flamed?
Funny you chose these as an example. There are probably more chicken and turkey eaten than rabbit and duck.

If one eats meat, one should know where and how it was raised.

No offense intended! I just get too attached to things to do it myself. I can't even bring myself to kill this weed!

I could probably handle watching the slaughter of my food; I'm just not sure I could do if it I had fed it every day.

It's a criticism of myself, not of you (or any livestock owner, for that matter).

[TheWaterbug]

^^
Further to the above, I've (briefly) considered raising chickens for eggs, and I think I'd get too depressed when they eventually aged and died or had to be culled.

[garudamon11]

You could sell them when you think they have become aged

Btw you can use the edit button

[TheWaterbug]

Hmm. What is this?
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/BrusselsSproutQuestionMark_web.jpg[/img]

My pet weed is now nearly 6' tall!
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/PetWeed4_web.jpg[/img]

[PunkRotten]

Don't let it go to seed or you are gonna have these all over your yard.

[TheWaterbug]

Don't let it go to seed or you are gonna have these all over your yard.

Yeah, if/when it flowers I'll cut them off before they mature.

Of course I'm out of town all next week, so it'll probably hurry up and broadcast seeds while I'm gone.

[garden5]

If it makes you feel any better, I know of an old-timer who's been gardening a long time. He planted something (I think oregano) and he took such good care of that plant. We watered, it weeded around it, and fertilized it....only to realize that the whole time he was doing this, he was really tending a weed! On top of that, when he mowed around the garden...he was mowing down the oregano plant each time!

At least you didn't pull good plants to make way for your weed .

[garudamon11]

If it makes you feel any better, I know of an old-timer who's been gardening a long time. He planted something (I think oregano) and he took such good care of that plant. We watered, it weeded around it, and fertilized it....only to realize that the whole time he was doing this, he was really tending a weed! On top of that, when he mowed around the garden...he was mowing down the oregano plant each time!

At least you didn't pull good plants to make way for your weed .

Wow thats a sad story :/

[organicgardenerswife]

Your title caught my eye! I do not know what your plant is, I have never seen one like it that I can recall. However, I also have to confess that I was guilty of raising a weed as well.

Oh, they can be such sly things! It grew right in my flower bed. and it looked unlike any weed I was familiar with. So I let it grow to see what it would become. After it was about 4 feet tall, and in blossom, I had to admit that it was a common weed that was like the ones I saw in the road ditches!

Was a bit hard to take, admitting that I had let such a big weed grow in my flowerbed!

[patientx3]

I think I had the exact same plant in my yard this summer. I was watering it along with my other plants and thought it might be a sunflower (I had a volunteer sunflower growing last year). It became clear it was something else, I searched and found out what it was called and of course now I can't remember.

[img]https://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g444/patientx3/plant.jpg[/img]

This is what I had in my garden, it got about four feet tall before I got rid of it. When I looked it up, I do remember that every part of the plant is poisonous (not the kill you type, but the make you sick type). And that the flowers grow into berries. If yours gets little flowers, then its probably the same thing. It might not be the same thing, the leaves look a little different. I didn't want to pull it either though, it was so big and happy.

[garden5]

If it makes you feel any better, I know of an old-timer who's been gardening a long time. He planted something (I think oregano) and he took such good care of that plant. We watered, it weeded around it, and fertilized it....only to realize that the whole time he was doing this, he was really tending a weed! On top of that, when he mowed around the garden...he was mowing down the oregano plant each time!

At least you didn't pull good plants to make way for your weed .

Wow thats a sad story :/

Actually, it did have a happy ending, though. By cutting the plant down every mowing, it looks like that strengthened the root system because the next year the plant got HUGE. It's a perennial, so it comes back each year .

[garudamon11]

Thats good to hear, would've been truly sad if he discovered that he has to wait another year to sow the seeds again

[!potatoes!]

patientx3 - for the record (for a reminder), that's a poke plant. yes, they're renowned for being poisonous...though the early spring shoots are reputed to be one of the best wild sallet greens (after boiling in several changes of water)...

hope you dug the roots out to some distance, or your friend will be back next year. they can be a relatively tenacious perennial.

[patientx3]

hope you dug the roots out to some distance, or your friend will be back next year. they can be a relatively tenacious perennial.

Yes, I dug it out as deep as I could. I'll keep an eye out next year though and yank him out immediately if he tries to come back (he's not tricking me into thinking he's a sunflower again).

[Bobberman]

Evryone needs a pet something even if its a pet weed!

[Jerrald]

I'd say just either spray it or rip it's heart out ;P

I don't like keeping weeds in my garden.

[TheWaterbug]

Who knew a weed could prompt such a vigorous conversation!?!?

It got uppity over the weekend (e.g. it grew taller than me), so I reached out in a fit of rage and pulled it!

It came out surprisingly easily. Its root ball was only about 12" in diameter, and not very deep at all. It probably grew as tall as it did because of the drip watering. I saw a few of these around the neighborhood, on the sides of the street, etc, and they were only 1-2' tall.

I got it before it flowered, so I don't think I'll have a mass recurrence next year. And if I do have a few solitaries, I'll know what they are avoid tending them so carefully.

[NaeMo]

My husband brought home a redbud start one year, and we planted it out in the parkway. We put something around it so the kids wouldn't accidentally mow it down AGAIN. The next spring it seemed to be doing all right, and grew a few feet tall, but it was bushy. We never really bothered with it, though, since it looked pretty good from the front porch.

One day, our elderly neighbor knocked on the door and asked why we were growing poison ivy in our yard. LOL! He was nice enough to come over and spray it dead. That was pretty embarrassing.

So the bright side, at least you weren't cultivating poison ivy.

[TheWaterbug]

One day, our elderly neighbor knocked on the door and asked why we were growing poison ivy in our yard.

ROTFLMAO! You win!