How to grow brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts are tall, upright plants that spend most of a season building height and leaf canopy before the crop appears: small heads that form in the leaf axils along the stalk, starting near the bottom and working upward. Gardeners grow them for a harvest window other crops cannot offer, a stalk that keeps supplying fresh sprouts through cool weather after most of the garden has been cleared. The plant takes real space and months of the calendar for a modest yield, a deliberate, seasonal project rather than a routine crop.

The hardest part of growing Brussels sprouts well is timing the harvest for cool weather. University of Maryland Extension notes the crop is grown for fall harvest because cool temperatures during maturity are essential to flavor, and heat and dry conditions during sprout formation cause bitterness and loose, poorly filled heads. A second-year gardener who starts sprouts on the same spring calendar as tomatoes pushes maturity into the hottest weeks of summer instead of autumn. The stalk still produces sprouts, but they come in loose and bitter, and by the time the mistake is obvious, the season is over.