I plant them as a spring crop to be harvested in fall.

If I leave them to overwinter, they put out seed.

Quite possible that's what happened to yours? The winter dormant stage triggered bolting?

I live in zone 8 & my brussels were ready in Feb. I planted them in October (starts, not seed). When did you plant yours?

Yep. I'm done trying to start them later in the fall or winter/spring. This year, they're going in August and if I don't get tight leaves, I'm never trying again. There's plenty of other brassicas that I can grow very successfully instead.

Kevin

I will be planting seeds next week to grow a nice crop of brussels sprouts ready to harvest in Oct and Nov. The optimum planting window in any given climate opens for but a short time.

A couple of stalks from last year ended up in the eternal compost of the chicken run, where they took root and are now producing the prettiest yellow flowers you ever saw...

How big did the plants end up? Mine did really well for me in the spring this year... I even got a few in the winter because it was so mild for so long here. In the past when mine failed over winter, the plants had remained small and rather spindly, like as thick as my finger but not much larger. So I try to plant them as early as I find the transplants in the farm store, and give them a good amount of manure mixed in the planting hole. Well, actually the planting hole I make much bigger than usual to be able to incorporate a fair amount of manure. This helps them grow big fast in the remaining heat of late summer, which then seems to lead to sprouts.

Double the post, double the fun!

Why does it do that?

This post was edited by sunnibel7 on Wed, Jun 5, 13 at 10:00

Sunnibel, I am in Md as well, I have tried a few times, in spring and in fall, to grow brussels sprouts as they are one of our favorites, have had beautiful green lush plants but no sprouts ! When do you plant yours ?

I am also in zone 7, and I planted Br. spr. seedlings around labor day--as soon as I spotted them at the garden center. They survived winter like a champ, after forming tiny sprouts beginning in November, and WOULD have produced pretty nice-size sprouts in early spring, but we had a freak few days of very hot weather in early April, and that was enough to make them bolt. The loose, leafy sprouts and the flower stalks were delicious though. The sad thing is that this is the most success I have had with any Brassica.
I think you should try again--I'm going to try planting earlier, say mid-August, this year. I let one plant form seed pods, and I am going to let it self-seed. The plants seem to be able to get the timing better than I can!

I have a similar issue with cabbage. I can grow gorgeous broccoli, nice cauliflower and Brussels, but cabbages - under the same conditions - never form a head for me. Perhaps the solution to your problem will shed light on mine, too. :)

Macky77:

I thought my Napa wasn't going to head either. They were getting huge and I almost gave up. I was just harvesting a few outer leaves and then bang! heads!

Kevin

Last year mine went out August 20, and they were purchased transplants. I have never had any real luck with ones I started myself, and only have had them make sizeable sprouts in the spring. But 1 year by accident and then 2 on purpose, I guess they just are fall overwintered veggies here. I am going to figure out cabbage next. I have seen gardens with great huge cabbages in spring on Chincoteague, so there's a way...

Had similar problem last year. I am in zone 6b, seeded in early spring, transplanted in beginning june, and watched them grow all summer into fall. They grew vigorously: three and a half feet of stalk, needed staking, plentiful leaves that I removed from lower stem. But no sprouts. I had thought previous efforts had not enough sun, or were planted late so I adjusted. Could this be a wrong fertilizer at wrong time problem? The cabbages and kale in same bed were VERY happy?? Leeks, lettuce and mizuna in next bed over, basically same treatment also VERY happy, so brassica, allium and leaf mustard all working, why no Brussels?

Macky I am jealous! I do well with broccoli, and have great success last two years with cabbage, but am bust for cauliflower, and Brussels!

Had similar problem last year. I am in zone 6b, seeded in early spring, transplanted in beginning june, and watched them grow all summer into fall. They grew vigorously: three and a half feet of stalk, needed staking, plentiful leaves that I removed from lower stem. But no sprouts. I had thought previous efforts had not enough sun, or were planted late so I adjusted. Could this be a wrong fertilizer at wrong time problem? The cabbages and kale in same bed were VERY happy?? Leeks, lettuce and mizuna in next bed over, basically same treatment also VERY happy, so brassica, allium and leaf mustard all working, why no Brussels?

Macky I am jealous! I do well with broccoli, and have great success last two years with cabbage, but am bust for cauliflower, and Brussels!

Kevin... Alas, the bane of my existence strikes again... too short of a season! ;) But yeah, my main heads of broccoli average 1 to 1.5 lbs each. Love that!

QBush... re: right fertilizer at the right time...

I test and then feed the soil in the spring (if needed), use a soluble starter fertilizer when I transplant (I start my own from seed) and then add nothing the rest of the season. My neighbour down the road (we're rural) has very similar soil, but they don't add as much organic matter as we do. She plops greenhouse starts in the dirt, waters when she remembers, doesn't fertilize... and gets lovely heads every year.

Could it be that brassicas *like* to be somewhat starved in order to form nice heads (or sprouts in the case of the Brussels)?

Never heard that one macky. I think they all prefer pretty fertile soil. I think it's all about a timing thing. I've had differently timed successions of broccoli and cauli in the same plot turn out different sized heads. I can plant them from Aug-Feb, but I notice the closer I get to the winter solstice to planting, the smaller the head. Which makes sense because the amount of sunlight. I also notice that my winter harvests(when planted in late/summer/early fall) are a bit better than my early summer summer harvests.

With my Brussels, I get big plants and I get sprouts. They're just always loose leaf sprouts. I read last year that July is supposed to be optimum for them here, so I'll give it one more shot I don't know how that's supposed to work out though -- our summers don't really get going until late july.

Kevin